EC team to arrive in Oct to review frozen food safety measures

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Doulot Akter Mala
The government has been scrutinising the food safety measures of country's frozen food industries in preparing itself to convince the European Commission (EC), the largest buyer of the products of such measures.
A delegation of the EC is expected to arrive in the country in October to monitor whether the existing industries were abiding by the food safety directives or not, a fisheries and livestock ministry source said.
Recently, the EC sent a letter expressing its desire to visit the country from October 16 to 26, he added.
"The government has been conducting a series of meetings with the frozen foods processing industries representatives to iron out the food safety issues before arrival of the EC team," he said.
The government will hold a meeting today (Tuesday) on 'aquaculture residue monitoring plan for 2007' with different entities under the ministry, he added.
The food and veterinary office of the EC has been firm on the food safety policy. Their stance has made the relevant authorities aware of the importance of adherence to the policy in order to satisfy the largest buyer of frozen foods, he added.
Earlier, a ban on the import of frozen shrimp from Bangladesh was imposed by the EU in 1997-98 fiscal for not following the latter's food safety directives properly.
The EU introduced strict laws against the use of nitrofurans in food items and rejected outward any such consignment that contained the harmful chemical above zero level as being unfit for human consumption.
The United States is a little more liberal about nitrofurans and the permissible level is 0.3 parts per billion.
In November last, an EC team visited the country and left disappointed after visiting the laboratories of Bangladesh Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR) where there were no nitro-furan testing equipment. The BCSIR, however, used to issue the 'nitro-furan free certificates' of shrimp export consignments.
Against this backdrop, the frozen foods exporters have imported the testing equipment from their own fund to keep continue the export.
The price of the equipment will, however, be adjusted against the testing certificate fees of the government.
After visiting the industries, the EC team submitted its report to the foods and veterinary office at Brussels.
The EC in its report pointed out some major deficiencies in the country's fish and shrimp processing labs as roadblocks to further export to the European countries.
The report also laid emphasis on immediate steps to stop the use of chemicals in frozen food products, which has been identified by the team.
Currently, out of 130 shrimp processing plants, the EC had approved 58 and allowed those to export seafood to its markets.
The EC imports 50 per cent of frozen shrimp and fish from Bangladesh.
Last year, the EC returned a number of consignments due to presence of harmful chemicals.
But, during the last few months the exporters did not receive any complaints from the EC due to installation of the nitrofuran-detecting machine, sources said.
The country fetched $390 million in 2003-04, $420 million in 2004-05 and $459 million in 2005-06 through frozen food exports.
In fiscal 2006-07, the frozen foods export will surpass $520 million due to value addition of their products and compliance with the buyers' directives, sources said.