CYPRUS Airways (CY) denied yesterday it served expired meals to the passengers of an inbound flight, thus putting their health at risk.
The airline was responding to a report in Sunday’s Politis, which said that the meals on a May 24 flight from Saint Petersburg, Russia, had expired a month before.
A crew leader’s report published by Politis said: “meal boxes for inbound flight had stickers on them indicating the ‘best before’ date which was the 21st of April, 2011. We conducted (sic) catering from LED (Saint Petersburg airport) and were told that it was OK to use those meals.”
The newspaper also listed two cases, earlier this year, in which passengers had complained after finding foreign objects in cheese pies served on CY flights.
And yesterday the newspaper said a CY inspection at the premises of the company the airline has outsourced its meals and snacks to, had found a series of violations of the food safety and hygiene code.
In a written statement, CY yesterday stressed that the meals on the Saint Petersburg flight had not expired and their quality had not been altered in any way to put passengers’ health at risk.
Based on European legislation, the airline said, even if a product is consumed past its “best before” date it does not mean it has gone bad or is dangerous for consumer health.
“’Best before’ in the case of frozen foods can be extended and foods can be consumed up to two months from the initial date provided that tests are done to confirm their suitability within those two months,” the airline said. “The catering services have carried out tests proving that the particular meals could be suitable even up to three months after the best before date.”
CY added however that it was not their policy to offer this type of food.
Spokesman Kyriacos Kyriacou said the airline terminated its collaboration with the caterer 15 days ago.
Speaking on state radio yesterday, Kyriacou conceded there have also been other complaints about the food and that a piece of plastic had been found in a cheese pie.
“Taking this into consideration and because renewal of the contract was imminent, people from the (CY) catering department carried out a surprise inspection at the installations of the supplier and immediately decided to terminate the collaboration,” Kyriacou said. “There were issues that we think did not meet the high quality and safety specifications CY set.”
The state health services said yesterday they had not been informed of the matter by CY.
Deputy director Christos Christou said they “unfortunately” found out through the media.
“CY should have reported events immediately when they happened so that inspections could have been done,” Christou said.
Following inspections yesterday, the health services said conditions at the company were good.
