CAFIA Annual Report for 2002

03/12/2003
 

3. Inspection

3.9 Suggestions

The Czech Agriculture and Food Inspection Authority admitted complaints and announcements from consumers and other entities (bodies of public administration, mass media), forming suggestions for the inspections and, to a considerable extent, determining the priorities of the inspections.

In 2002 CAFIA received 1,477 suggestions. A prevailing number of suggestions were obtained from consumers. Yet higher and higher number of suggestions from consumers was a consequence of more frequently presented results of inspections in mass media and on the CAFIA web site, and also as a consequence of a growing interest of the consumer public in food issues and, of the growing consumer awareness. CAFIA admitted a part of the suggestions from authorities for the public health protection: the Czech Inspection of Commerce, State Veterinary Administration, Department of Czech Police, and utilised also suggestions presented in mass media.

Among the most often received complaints were the inadequate quality of foodstuffs, selling of foods after the expired use-by-date or date of minimum durability, non-compliances with the sanitary and hygienic requirements in the stores, unsatisfactory conditions of storage and false labelling of foodstuffs.

As for the commodities, the suggestions most often concerned fresh fruit and fresh vegetables, delicacies, dairy, meat, and baked products, confectioneries. The complaints about the quality of alcoholic beverages were relatively frequent, unlike the complaints about the quality of non-alcoholic beverages.

The highest number of suggestions submitted related to the foodstuffs sold in smaller stores, the number of suggestions relating to the foodstuffs sold in supermarkets was smaller.

Graph 3.9: Number of suggestions by year

Graph 3.9 Number of suggestions by year