AUTHORITIES yesterday shed some light on how large amounts of contaminated foodstuffs found their way to store shelves, three days after revelations that consumers could be at risk.
Over the weekend, the Health Ministry said that amounts of contaminated lountza meat, pistachio nuts and dried apricots were being recalled from the market, warning consumers to stay clear of these products temporarily.
By yesterday the health services removed up to 1,000kg of dried apricots, 690kg of pistachios and 71kg of lountza, as the public waited for an explanation.
The manufacturers and packers of the contaminated lountza were apparently known since last week, but for some reason the government hesitated to name the company.
But in the wake of the media coverage and pressure from consumer groups, Agriculture Minister Timis Efthymiou yesterday identified the culprits as Homatas, a salted meats distributor based in Limassol.
According to Efthymiou, a total of 163kg of the tainted meat was produced, of which 91kg was bought by consumers, with the remaining 71kg recalled by the governmental health services. The batch’s expiry date was April 2005.
The lountza was found to be contaminated with the bacteria Listeria Monocytogenes. People developing Listeria infection could contract fever, muscle aches, and sometimes gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea or diarrhoea. If the infection spreads to the nervous system, symptoms such as headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance, or convulsions can occur.
“Had it not been for the random checks, we might never have discovered this,” Efthymiou told journalists yesterday. He went on to slam the veterinary and health services for “incredible” negligence and delays in tracking down and going public with the problem, saying his ministry would launch a probe to find out what went wrong in the control process and who was accountable.
Efthymiou also said he would ask the Cabinet tomorrow to sanction an investigation into the Homatas company, stressing he would be “ruthless” in dealing with any guilty parties, if found.
Meanwhile, the Consumers’ Association said that EU regulations stipulated strict monitoring of foodstuffs on the market, claiming that the government services did not maintain the necessary standards.
More seriously, the association’s president Loucas Aristodemou charged that the announcement on the faulty pistachios was made 12 days late. He said the random quality control took place as far back as late November.
The contaminated batch of pistachios now in question had been imported from Iran, via Greece. The nuts were distributed in Cyprus under the brand name Pronto. They were found to contain traces of a toxin, caused by unsuitable storage conditions.
According to Aristodemou, similar problems had come up in the past, particularly with nuts imported from Arab countries.
This was confirmed by other sources, who said the involved government services were understaffed and could not cope with the workload in monitoring procedures.
As one consumer group spokesman put it, “no one can assure us that none of the bad meat was eaten, or how much.”
