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The Czech Agriculture and Food Inspection Authority (CAFIA) has been conducting inspections in public catering premises, i.e. in restaurants, fast foods, confectionary shops, beer houses, wine bars, etc. already since 2015.

During these six years, CAFIA inspectors carried out the total of 73 805 inspections, out of which 19 512 revealed violation of legislation. The inspectors thus detected deficiencies in the case of 26.2% of inspections, and public catering sector thus represents the most problematic segment among all types of premises under the responsibility of CAFIA.

The fact that circa every fourth inspection in public catering sector reveals violation of legislation is regarded as unacceptable, and CAFIA will further pay its maximum effort to improve the situation in this segment.

At the same time it should be highlighted that due to the targeted inspection pressure of CAFIA inspectors, the amount of deficiencies in particular in the area threating consumers’ health was gradually and significantly decreased. Inspections in restaurants launched in 2015 showed that the condition of restaurants is very neglected, a significant part of operators is not aware even of the most elementary obligations, and inspectors thus had to close 144 premises of public catering on the spot due to their unacceptable hygiene condition. This number represented 65.2% of all premises closed by CAFIA. In 2020, 22 premises were closed down and in 2019, thus year before declaration of the emergency state, 49 premises were closed down. The number of the most serious violations in the area of hygiene requirements thus decreased by more than two thirds between 2015 and 2020. Medium and less significant violations in the area of hygiene requirements still remain a problem; violation was detected in 31% of cases out of the total of 45 508 inspections carried out in public catering sector (2015: 36.2%, 2020: 29.7%).

Long-term neglecting of cleaning of the premises, unsafe technical condition of equipment and areas of the premises, moulds in the premises and chilling equipment, occurrence of pests, failure to dispose wastes, etc. are typical reasons for closing the premises. These conditions pose risk to consumers’ health.

As regards inspections in public catering sector, CAFIA inspectors perform comprehensive inspections of hygiene and microbiological requirements: ensuring operational hygiene (regular cleaning, cleaning and sanitation), prevention of the dissemination of foodborne diseases, pest control procedures, health condition of employees, presence of harmful microorganisms, such as Salmonella spp., Listeria monocytogenes, Campylobacter spp., Escherichia coli forming shigatoxins, staphylococcal enterotoxins, noroviruses, exceptionally also hepatitis A and E viruses; microbiological criteria of food hygiene - bacteria of the Enterobacteriaceae family, E.coli; microbiological criteria of health safety and quality of ice intended for beverages - coliform bacteria, intestinal enterococci, E.coli, Clostridium perfringens, etc.

CAFIA noticed improvement as regards labelling of allergens in meals when in 2015, 18% of premises failed compared to only 5.1% in 2020 (in 2019 there were 6.1% of operators with failures in this field).

Consumers’ deception and adulteration is a significant problem of public catering, which had not been systematically solved before 2015. This is a practice where a food ingredient listed in the menu is replaced by another, typically a cheaper one. E.g. the inspection activity focused on the species authenticity of meat in restaurants and fast foods confirmed misleading of consumers in one third of the evaluated samples, including for example "deer goulash", "veal and chicken kebab", etc. This also concerns offering dishes labelled as "sirloin in cream", "pasta with cream sauce", "cream-based pizza", but in reality these are dishes prepared on the basis of vegetable fat substitutes. Many operators also mislead consumers by stating ingredients, such as “mozzarella”, “fried cheese” and “fried Eidam” while inspections confirm use of cheaper vegetable fat substitutes. CAFIA inspectors also detect misleading in the case of ingredients labelled as "ham", "Parma ham", "Prosciutto di Parma", etc. Operators also deceive by labelling of drinks, such as "Juice - 100% fruit content" and in fact a drink with a lower proportion of fruit is concerned or "Apricot - fruit distillate" is an aromatized spirit, beer labelled as "12° lager" is a drink of lower grade," wine from Moravia" actually comes from Slovakia or Hungary, a drink declared “chocolate" contains less than the required content of cocoa.

Adulteration and misleading of consumers were found out in the case of 23% of 10 451 assessed samples of meals and drinks.

For performance of all inspections mentioned above, CAFIA is equipped by top equipment in accredited laboratories both in the CR and abroad. The equipment of the laboratories and the applied methods are mostly unique in the CR and no other domestic laboratories perform inspections in the given segment in the same extent of assessed parameters as CAFIA does.

Results of inspections in public catering including premises closed for unacceptable hygiene conditions are made regularly and transparently public on www.potravinynapranyri.cz as well as on social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The Czech Agriculture and Food Inspection Authority is utterly prepared for performance of comprehensive inspections laid down by food legislation in all premises of public catering of open type, which is in the interest of all consumers and honest business persons as well.

Article by: Mgr. Pavel Kopřiva – CAFIA Spokesperson

15^th March 2021