Food Surveillance
The food surveillance is one of the most regulated areas of entrepreneurship and persons who as commercial companies get involved in any of the stages of food circulation should be ready to comply with the requirements stipulated by numerous normative acts, including the regulations and decisions of the European Union, the laws of Latvia Republic and the regulations issued by the Cabinet of Ministers. In compliance with the requirements stipulated by the normative acts concerning the responsibility for the safety and quality of food lays on the food enterprise. In order to guarantee that the consumers receive safe and harmless food, the food enterprises have to introduce the system of self-control , which includes the surveillance and analyses of each stage of food circulation, defines the stages in food circulation which are critical or dangerous for food safety and harmlessness, and introduces effective control and surveillance procedures in these stages.
One of the most important FVS functions is the state surveillance over food circulation, therefore within the framework of the principle “the control from the field till the table”, FVS inspectors ensure continuous surveillance over the compliance with the requirements stipulated by normative acts in all stages of food circulation: obtaining the products, the production, sales and public catering.
In order to harmonize the food sector in the country FVS has gathered information and registered all enterprises involved in the food circulation by awarding; each enterprise has been given a registration number. The registered enterprises are included in the register of the enterprises subjected to the FVS surveillance and are available to the public in FVS webpage. It shall be considered that the enterprises that are not registered by FVS are performing illegal activities. The enterprises willing to perform the activities that are linked with meat obtaining, food processing, remaking, freezing, storage and packaging have to go through approval procedure, which is the evaluation of the activities performed the company and its ability to ensure the compliance of its activities with the requirements stipulated by the normative regulations confirmed by the approval number issued by FVS . The approved enterprises are allowed to distribute their products in the whole market of European Union without any limitations.
FVS inspectors perform planned inspections of food enterprises every day, which are organized on the bases of FVS inspection plan. The plan stipulates the minimum frequency of the checks for each group of food enterprises performed during a year by evaluating the risk of each group activities; the frequency varies from one time per quarter till one time per two years. Upon receiving the complaints from the consumers, information from any other institutions or in cases of possible risk there are extraordinary checks performed. In order to obtain objective information about food safety and compliance with the hygiene requirements, the inspectors regularly obtain the product samples and send them to the laboratories for the checks. In cases if the enterprises do not follow the requirements of normative regulations, FVS inspectors have the right to apply the following sanctions: the warning, penalty, ban on product distribution, withdrawing the products from the circulation or even the termination of the activities of the enterprise.
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