The Minister of Agriculture, Denis Ducarme, said on Wednesday, before the joint Economic and Public Health Committee that random checks in refrigerators, abattoirs and meat cutting rooms will be stepped up. The remit for this extension is the entire country. Ducarme is also in charge of the Federal Agency for Food Chain Safety (AFSCA).
More than a thousand businesses will be subject to one additional check every quarter. Upon the minister’s request to the AFSCA, 106 abattoirs, 479 meat cutting rooms and 478 refrigerators will now be subject to additional checks.
Denis Ducarme added that the conclusions of the audits regarding the inner workings and frameworks of the AFSCA, as well as its monitoring policy, approved last Friday by the Cabinet, will be made available in the summer. He assured the joint committee that reforms implemented will be monitored so as to both “absolve small businesses, and put pressure upon large meat processing manufacturers.”
The subject anticipated for discussion on Wednesday in the Economy and Public Health Committee concerned the AFSCA’s report. Parliament had already received the document on Monday afternoon. The minister requested the report, which comprises ten introductory pages and 4,000 pages of appendices, after the Veviba scandal first broke.
The Brussels Times
