The National Food Safety Agency (ANSA) is examining the quality of food produces during the moratorium on state inspections too. The Agency’s director general Gheorghe Gaberi said the employees of the Agency, not the business entities, check the quality of products. He underlined the necessity of reducing illegal trade because this causes the most serious problems related to the consumption of products of a poor quality, IPN reports.

Gheorghe Gaberi referred to the recent press reports about the family that was poisoned by fresh vegetables, saying this is impossible. “Those children were to eat 50 or even 100 kilograms of radish or cucumbers to get a lethal dose of nitrates,” he stated.

According to the ANSA director, the Agency can check only the products sold legally. “The phenomenon of street trading is present everywhere. The local authorities and the police should deal with it. If we manage to diminish this phenomenon, I think we can substantially improve the quality of the consumed products,” he said.

This year ANSA will take about 1 million samples that will be examined in the labs of Moldova and abroad. In the national labs, the products cannot be checked for genetically modified organisms.

Gheorghe Gaberi said now they face problems related to the sale of counterfeit phytosanitary products. The Agency’s actions are not limited by the moratorium on state inspections as the issuing of any phytosanitary certificate is the end result of a rigorous check.