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CAFIA extends its services for consumer – closed premises are on the Food Pillory

04/01/2015
 
Since today, the Czech Agriculture and Food Inspection Authority (CAFIA) has been making public the overview of premises that were closed due to serious violence of hygiene requirements. The overview is available on the Food Pillory website. It is a logic step following the extension of CAFIA inspection responsibilities by premises of public catering – restaurants, bars, wine shops, fast foods and further – since 1st January 2015. CAFIA now releases information on all closed premises falling under its responsibility. Besides premises of public catering, also retails selling and manufacturing foodstuffs are concerned. The database has been filled with data on the closed premises since the beginning of 2015.
“Making public the overview of the premises that fail to comply with hygiene regulations or have serious deficiencies threatening health is another step towards more complex protection of consumers”, Marian Jurečka, the Minister of Agriculture, said. Similarly to cases of non-compliant foodstuffs published on the Food Pillory website so far, all relevant information is given at each premises – address, local name, type of violation, date of closing and re-opening (after removal of deficiencies which is verified by a CAFIA follow-up inspection) and further information. Consumers can also find problematic premises in their neighbourhood by means of an interactive map.
“The aim of the new service provided by the Food Pillory website is to strengthen the awareness of consumers and at the same time contribute to equal competitive conditions. Prevention is another significant effect”, Martin Klanica, CAFIA Director General, said.
Based on its new responsibilities, CAFIA carried out a total of 3,170 inspections at the premises of public catering between 1st January and 31st March 2015. At almost 1/3 of inspections focused on hygiene, the Authority encountered serious violation of regulations. Namely following problems were concerned: Neglected cleaning of kitchens and storages with layers of dust, grease and leftovers, mouldy areas, occurrence of rodents and mice excrements, cooling equipment out of order, storing of foodstuffs in unsuitable areas, missing warm water supply and further deficiencies possibly threatening health of consumers.
Violation of elementary obligations was the reason for temporary closure of 55 premises of public catering or their parts. Within the same period as mentioned above, CAFIA closed 13 premises that were not public catering premises – in particular retail shops selling foodstuffs were concerned. Public catering premises thus comprised more than 80% of all closed premises, which insinuates that a certain part of public catering operators has significant problems related to awareness and fulfilment of elementary hygiene requirements. The aim of CAFIA activities is protection of consumers, effective law enforcement as well as a mutual dialogue and education of the entrepreneurs.
The new service is a natural evolution of the Food Pillory project launched in 2012.


Article by: Pavel Kopřiva, CAFIA Spokesperson