Belgian food safety ‘still a worry’

19 January 2005

BRUSSELS – Belgium’s food safety standards are still a cause for concern, according to the leading consumer watchdog Test Achats.

On Wednesday, La Libre Belgique reported that Test Achats’ survey of 2004 had found some improvements in food and hygiene, but more changes still need to take place.

It was unhappy that traders were keeping food at the wrong temperature and want more to be done to enforce the correct levels.

Of the fridges it tested, 40 percent were too warm.

There was also concern about the labelling of food.

Although labelling is getting better, Test-Achats wants more standard labels, which clearly display the same information about food content – particularly important, says the organisation, because two percent of the population is allergic.

Test-Achats also found chickens swollen with water, banned sulphites present in steaks, the presence of carcinogenic chemicals in food, beef of unknown origin and too many additives used in some products.

It said that food in residential homes was nutritious but there needed to be more care taken over hygiene.

However, the watchdog reported some good news. It noted, for instance, that none of the samples of bananas that were tested exceeded the limit of residual fungicides.

[Copyright Expatica 2005]

Subject: Belgian news