By purchasing food products, every buyer hopes that they are safe and of high quality. Consumers who buy cheaper products in illegal trade spots, pose a risk to their health and the health of their relatives, because the conditions of production, acquisition, storage, transportation of these products are unknown. It is possible to submit claims regarding the officially bought defective product, but there is nowhere to claim against illegally sold product. We interview Jonas Milius, the head of the National Food and Veterinary Risk Assessment Institute, about food safety and quality.

Are the requirements for the products sold in shops and markets, including mobile farmers’ fairs, different?
Some of the users, saving time, acquire goods in supermarkets, whereas other buyers are not concerned about how one or the other product has been manufactured or produced, so they are happy about shopping in markets, where they can chat with the seller.
Safety and quality requirements for products sold in all authorized trade outlets and in currently popular in mobile fairs of farmers are unified.
Farmers produce products from natural raw materials, using less food additives or not using them at all, so the sales term of these products may be shorter, yet they are completely safe. Every farmer, by presenting his products, anticipates that the buyer, after purchasing a quality product, will return next time. So let’s rediscover Lithuanian products harvested or manufactured by farmers.

Consumers are often puzzled about the question, whether the quality of sausages manufactured in Lithuania differs from imports from other countries?
All countries establish the principal requirements for the quality of products and control that the marketed products conform to the manufacturer’s declared indicators. The manufacturer must provide the necessary information in the product label to enable the consumer to decide what to choose, depending on the quality and price ratio.
Since 2003 Lithuania has introduced a national standard LST 1919 Meat Products, which regulates the qualitative indicators of meat products: quantities of fat, protein, moisture, meat substitutes, fillers. This standard is mandatory for all Lithuanian manufacturers and differs from the requirements of other countries for meat products because it indicates a clear breakdown of these products by types and quality indicators. Products manufactured according to this standard provide comprehensive information for consumers, as type and composition of the product is indicated.
Latvia, Poland, Estonia, Ireland and other countries have no standards for qualitative indicators of meat products. In other countries, standards govern only traditional meat products with a geographical indication, rather than usual products intended for all consumer groups. Only Austria and Germany apply more stringent standards.
In order to assess the differences between products attributed to the same type, the Food Institute of Kaunas University of Technology, following the order of the State Food and Veterinary Service, in 2007-2008 carried out research of Lithuanian and Polish products. According to their data, 19 percent of Lithuanian and 47 percent of Polish meat products did not meet the quality requirements. This demonstrates that when selecting imported products, it is more important to check the label information rather than a reference to the kind of product.
I would like to emphasize once again that the greatest dangers are posed by illegally imported products, since there is no guarantee that the products are manufactured in accordance with EU requirements, and their production is supervised by competent control authorities. Consumers are not safe buying such product.

Imported vegetable products often contain pesticide residues. Are fruits and vegetables grown abroad really safe?
The main safety indicator of fruits and vegetables are pesticide residues that accumulate in plants during their cultivation period. The Maximum Allowable Concentration (MAC) has been established for active ingredients of every pesticide, which, as it is believed, does not pose risk to human health. MAC is the main legal argument determining whether it will be allowed to sell the production.
Today, the harmfulness of fruit and vegetables is assessed by the quantity of one or another contaminant taken in by the human body with food per day. For example, if the allowable pesticide rate in fruits is 1.0 mg/kg, then a person receives fewer pollutants when eating 100 grams of product containing 1.2 mg/kg of pesticide, than eating 200 g of product containing 0.9 mg/kg.
Several times more plant protection substances are used in other foreign countries, so pesticide residues which are not present in Lithuanian products accumulate in foreign vegetable products. Moreover, residues of several pesticides are often found in the imported products, for instance, as many as six pesticide residues have been found in one strawberry sample. Although the MAC is not exceeded, the high content of pesticides residues is much more likely in countries where more pesticides are used in the cultivation of fruit and vegetables, and therefore people eating these products will receive more contaminants. Residues of pesticides not used in Lithuania are found in grapes, peaches, tangerines, apples and other fruits imported from Turkey, India, Chile, as well as the production harvested in the EU.
National Food and Veterinary Risk Assessment Institute analyses the food safety and quality indicators, its laboratory performs all tests for the evaluation of imported products: research for the determination of mycotoxins, pesticides, heavy metals, dioxins, genetically modified organisms and other contaminants. We also analyse the safety and quality of raw materials, food, and feed.
Lithuania applies stringent requirements for the registration and use of pesticides. Before allowing the use of plant protection measures (and their number is quite limited), their properties are comprehensively assessed.
Our country’s manufacturers are fully responsible for quality of products manufactured in their companies, which is once again evaluated by the trading company when accepting the product. It is therefore possible to ensure that the food products manufactured in Lithuania and sold in official trade outlets are safe and of high quality.