High temperatures bring increased risk to perishable foodstuffs, such as milk and dairy products, mayonnaise, eggs, food of animal origin, ice cream, cakes and similar.
It only takes a couple of hours at high temperatures for bacteria to quicky multiply, therefore food safety inspection services, both at the republic and at the city/municipality levels as good practice increase preventive inspection surveillance of facilities selling perishable foodstuffs, that have higher risk of fast bacterial growth.
During preventive inspection, the inspectors check hygiene of facilities and surrounding areas, equipment, operation of refrigerators, manner on which the food is stored, hygienic procedures of employees, evidence on health and education of staff working with food, declarations and sensory properties of food, testing of food in authorised laboratories, records on testing, etc.
In this year, the Republic Food Safety Inspection has conducted 760 inspections in the internal market. In 300 cases various irregularities were found and the businesses were ordered to correct them, while minor offence orders were issued for violations committed in the total value of BAM 210,00. The irregularities that inspectors most often found related to employees not completing their regular sanitary testing and not having additional training, businesses not regularly testing raw materials and finished products, and irregularities in declarations and accompanying documents.
Finding non-compliant food is much rarer than finding irregularities that could cause non-compliant food, such as those listed above. During periods of high temperatures incorrect handling of food, storing it outside cooling devices, etc, can result in food being spoiled in just a couple of hours.
When purchasing food, citizens should pay attention to the look, colour, smell, consistency and other sensory properties of food. In case they notice bad food or inappropriate storing of food in a shop they should immediately inform the competent inspection service in their city. Also, citizens must take special care in preparing and storing food at home. During periods of high temperatures, foods must be stored at low temperatures in the so-called cold chain.
Purchased food needs to be stored in cooling devices as soon as possible, while fresh groceries need to be separated from packaged ones, as well as dairy products from mead, and maintain hygiene of cooling devices.
