Poland gets more time
comply with EU food safety regulations, the EU Commission has said
that it will be prepared to further extend deadlines in an attempt
to help companies bring facilities up to standard. Help is also at
hand from the Polish Food and Drink National Federation.
In Parliament, the EU executive has been lobbying to raise concerns over agri-food establishments which are still struggling to comply with regulations. Meanwhile, Poland still continues to be a focus of attention, with many processors reported to be far from reaching compliance standards by the 1 May deadline.
Originally the Commission had warned that there would be tough sanctions on those processors which failed to comply and that the worst offenders would have to be closed down altogether. However, after an outcry from the food industry, the Commission seems to have softened its stance in recent weeks and has made several concessions.
The most significant of these was the recent announcement that some processors who had failed to meet the deadline would still be able to trade under specially agreed terms.
Jacek Czarnecki, press spokesman at the Polish Food and Drink National Federation, believes that many recent press reports on compliance of EU regulations in the food processing sector have been misplaced.
"The Polish meat sector has been the focus of significant media attention mainly because of its size," Czarnecki said. "There are close to 4,000 businesses in this sector and each of these has had to face its own set of individual criteria and challenges to fulfil the new safety regulations. However, I would also point out that that there have been the same sort of levels of compliance in both the fish and dairy sectors."
Classifications for processing facilities have fallen into four basic groups: A, which is now compliant, B1, which is expected to become compliant before accession, B2 which is expected to become compliant after accession and C, which is expected to be closed down. Obviously, B is the group which is currently receiving the most attention, with companies invariably working flat out to upgrade facilities.
"What manufacturers are facing is a lack of funds as well as awareness of both legal and technical issues," said Czarnecki. "We have stepped in to help small and medium sized processing companies with both technical and legal issues relating to compliance. Partly funded by the EU, we are running a seminar on 4 March which involves around 100 processing companies. The object of the project is to give these businesses advice that will help them fulfil relevant safety regulations."
Czarnecki also pointed out that alongside the seminar the EU is trying to keep as many businesses in the sector afloat as possible without obviously compromising food safety.
"I believe that there will not be as many closures as press reports would have us believe," Czarnecki added. "The EU has now agreed that those products being sold by companies which are still struggling to comply with the regulations [mainly in the B2 category] will be able to carry special labels, clearly marking that they have not met with EU approval yet. Such products are likely to remain on the shop shelves on a national level."
The Commission has said that awareness of the regulations is generally high across the region, but that compliance has often taken longer than expected. On the back of this, many processing companies will be receiving extensions of up to six months to comply.
