La Unió Llauradora i Ramadera has made a call for guaranteeing health security after reporting that the RASFF, the EU's Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed, had published a new alert on Friday, March 15, regarding the presence of hepatitis A in strawberries from Morocco, the second consecutive alert in just nine days, so the organization. The alert issued qualifies the presence of this virus as a serious and potentially serious risk.
La Unió stressed that the health of European consumers couldn't be put at risk and that citizens must be informed about the controls being carried out on products imported from third countries and, in this case, in particular, on strawberry imports from Morocco. "We're afraid that authorities are only carrying out random controls and inspections, so discovering a disease or a pest is just as unlikely as winning the lottery," said Carles Peris, general secretary of La Unió.
After the first detection, Morocco's Ministry of Agriculture, Maritime Fisheries, Rural Development, Water and Forests rejected the "rumors and false information" regarding the presence of the hepatitis A virus in Moroccan strawberries, stating that the goal of said rumors was to tarnish the reputation of the country's agricultural products. The Ministry explained that, after receiving the health notification regarding a batch of strawberries exported from Morocco, the National Office of Food Safety (ONSSA) opened an investigation, tracked the shipment, identified the field and the packaging unit in question, and carried out all the necessary analyses to evaluate its quality and determine any possible health risks.
However, this is no longer an isolated and specific situation as the European alert authority deems this second detection of hepatitis A as a serious risk.
Peris demands more coherence in EU policies that apply to imported products and mirror clauses so that producers exporting their products to EU territory comply with the same requirements as EU farmers. "We are not asking to be treated better, we're asking for equality. The EU must take everything related to consumer health more seriously. It must establish more controls and ask for reciprocity in compliance with European standards," he stated.
For more information:
Carles Peris
La Unió
Tel.: +34 658 92 89 23
[email protected]
https://launio.org