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Czech Agriculture and Food Inspection Authority continuously performs inspections of early and autumn potatoes
05/14/2003The Czech Agriculture and Food Inspection Authority (CAFIA) has been paying great attention to the inspection of domestic and mainly of imported potatoes for several years. CAFIA does not focus only on the fulfilment of safety, quality and labelling requirements but on the variety purity of early and autumn consumer potatoes as well.
According to valid legislation, consumer potatoes, put into circulation in the Czech Republic, can have no more than 2% of admixture of different variety tubers than it is being declared. The purity of potato varieties is detected by means of protein electrophoresis method. This method is used in the Czech Republic by the laboratories of Potato Research Institute in Havlíčkův Brod and Research Institute of Crop Production in Prague-Ruzyně, where some samples taken by CAFIA were analysed there in the past.
However, since 1 January 2003 these laboratories have not been complying with the accreditation conditions of CSN ISO 17025, therefore, the taken samples have been analysed in the corresponding laboratory in Vienna chosen by CAFIA. There were several decisive factors; it was not only the required laboratory accreditation and its methods but adequate costs, which equal to the costs spent last year on domestic potato analyses, as well.
Following the experiences from previous years, CAFIA inspects mainly variety purity of potatoes coming from the neighbouring countries because the analyses performed often showed an inadmissibly higher percentage of other variety admixtures than in case of domestic potatoes.
Therefore, in 2002 approximately every fifth inspected lot of early potatoes was coming from import. Out of 92 samples of imported early potatoes, 31 (i.e.34%) were not complying with the requirements set for variety purity, as compared with domestic potatoes, where only in 2 samples (i.e. 10%) out of 20, the non-conformity was identified.
This year, CAFIA has been already taking samples, and it will have taken the same number of samples (i.e. 90) of early imported potatoes, the variety purity of which will be analysed by Viennese laboratory. The concerns of the Central Potato Association that “this situation will be abused by the importers of early potatoes, who could then put into circulation cheap and not quality products” are not therefore appropriate. In addition to this, CAFIA is planning to buy its own laboratory equipment necessary for the protein electrophoresis this year.
During the inspection of imported potatoes, CAFIA closely co-operates with the State Phytosanitary Administration. Based on the results from the phytosanitary inspections, CAFIA performs the inspections of the consignment of the potatoes in case of the suspicion that the appropriate regulations have been broken - it concerns mainly the potato variety purity and the content of pesticides residues.
In order to make the whole situation clear, CAFIA had inspected 1304 lots of consumer potatoes last year, out of which 330 (i.e. 25%) were not complying with some given requirements. Out of 1043 lots of domestic potatoes, 249 were not complying with the requirements (i.e.24%), whereas out of 261 lots of imported potatoes, 81 lots were not complying with the requirements (i.e. 31%).
CAFIA is planning to continue with the performance of continuous potato inspections with the same intensity.
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