New Food Safety Agency to make certification easier

The Food Safety Agency, which will be crated this year, will have a set of key objectives to ensure food security and safety. The Agency will take over the functions of a number of ministries and agencies on this segment, using the one-stop-shop principle to make food safety certification and traceability easier, stated Agriculture and Food Industry Minister Vasile Bumacov. Bumacov described the absurdity of the current state of affairs in the area: for example, the quality of the chemicals used to treat grapes falls within the supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry; when the grapes are harvested, the farmer has to go to the Ministry of Health with all the certificates obtained from the Ministry of Agriculture so that the former can issue him another certificate. And all the certificates cost, at all stages. So, a common institution is needed to handle issues concerned with food safety, like it's done in the EU countries, argued Vasile Bumacov. The Agency will be funded from the State Budget. Foreign donors will also contribute: for example, equipment for laboratories that will test fodder safety will be purchased through a World Bank-supported project. Minister Bumacov also spoke about the existing impediments in creating the Agency: “I'm talking in particular about the departmental interests of the agencies that are going to be merged. There is strong lobbying and it will be difficult to pass this bill through Parliament. But I'm hopeful these problems will be solved.” The creation of the National Food Safety Agency is very important in the context of the negotiations on the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement with the EU, as well as in the context of Moldova's efforts to acquire the status of a third-party country in the export of animal-origin food on the EU markets”, said the Minister. The bill creating the Agency and laying down other food safety requirements, which was recently approved by the Government, adopts a set of standards set out in the European Union's Regulation (EC)178/2002 concerning food safety.