A fewer days ago, Europe past information With pesticides contaminated beef from Brazil that reached the Netherlands. Now it turns out that a akin problem besides appeared in Poland. Unfortunately, due to the Tusk government, this information was kept secret for a long time. The delayed reactions of Polish services and the effort to cover up the facts rise serious questions about the effectiveness of food safety oversight.
Contaminated beef from Mercosur already in Poland? The communications to journalists show that the European Commission has already informed associate States on 11 November of irregularities related to Brazilian beef. Oestradiol - growth hormone banned in the European Union - has been detected in meat. Brussels then requested verification of the contested product lots.
The key question, however, is: if the information has been available for months, why was it only revealed at the time of the outbreak in the Netherlands, and the intensive control activities of Polish services started only now? The Chief Veterinary Inspectorate ensures that Poland has not been designated as the recipient of the contaminated batch and that the situation has been monitored on an ongoing basis. At the same time, the Agricultural and Food Products Trade Quality Inspection started taking meat samples at the retail stage, and laboratory tests are inactive ongoing.
The authoritative responses thus show a image of the procedure. The problem is that the public only found out about the case at the time of the announcement of “urgent checks”. The deficiency of a clear explanation of what happened between November and February raises doubts about the transparency of the state's communication with citizens. The services did not answer questions about details of erstwhile actions or the reasons for the abrupt acceleration of control. They should, of course, be sought in the broadcast of the Dutch scandal in another European country, which was simply no longer hidden.
The dispute concerns not only meat itself but besides emergency consequence mechanisms under the EU RASFF system. If Poland was not actually a recipient of contaminated parties, it can be argued that the current activities are preventive. On the another hand, the deficiency of transparent narration gives emergence to suspicion that the informing strategy works mainly on the authoritative level alternatively than on the information level and is then launched, not preventively, as shortly as the "milk spills".
Consumer concern is besides due to the broader context – expanding non-EU food imports and trade negotiations with Mercosur countries. Under specified conditions, any signal about growth hormones or safety violations becomes a test for state institutions. That is erstwhile citizens anticipate clear communication, not laconic messages.
The question of contaminated beef thus shows the tension between formal safety and social control of the system. Even if no dangerous parties have been detected in Poland, the deficiency of clear answers to the question of the minute of implementation of the action undermines assurance in the institution. At a time erstwhile food safety is part of political and economical debate, transparency can be as crucial as the laboratory procedures themselves.
We've been informing about the Mercosur deal for months. As we can see, it has not yet entered into force and problems with poisoned food are already emerging. Unfortunately, this will only be more in the future, as it is not hard to imagine production and control standards in the countries of the "third world".
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