“Extra Milk” a small business and family enterprise house, which has earned a good reputation in the domestic market thanks to the quality products and food safety standards it has established. As an enterprise, which has built its success based on the consumer’s trust, it welcomes the latest legal amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code related to the food safety.

Earlier today, Prime Minister Edi Rama, accompanied by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Bledi Çuçi, visited the Extra Milk business venues, a certified producer of milk and dairy products and by-products.

Agriculture Minister Çuçi said that the proposed package of amendments to the Criminal Code on food fraud and counterfeiting will help food businesses operating and fairly competing in the market.

“This is relatively a small business in terms of its production capacity, but it is one of dozens and hundreds of businesses that have gained a good reputation in the market and have created their loyal clients. Undoubtedly this is the basic element in the business’ success. Despite the uproar over the quality of Albanian products, this is a clear example that Albanian food products meet safety standards and such businesses certified and controlled by the Albanian authorities are indeed the right addresses where consumers should by the safe products they need. I am confident that the proposed changes we have forwarded for approval to parliament and which will introduce provisions of law that provide for a new crime, a more severe sentence for offenses involving abuse with food quality standards and food counterfeiting, will offer a great help and relieve for the businesses operating in this sector. This is the discussion we are currently involved in. These businesses are really optimistic about the new package of amendments, providing for the punishment of anyone who counterfeits and falsifies agricultural and food products. One major reason to present this package of amendments is that we have referred 95 suspected food fraud cases to the prosecution office in one year, but none of the cases has completed. The truth is that the existing criminal provisions were very general and required that someone dies before reporting and denouncing cases of abuse with food products. This is unacceptable and therefore we have suggested amendments, providing for four criminal offences and more severe penalties for violating food safety standards without waiting for someone to die first and the act. Because of course the fake food poses a serious and irreversible health problems and safety of the people. So this package will help businesses that offer safe products in the market,” he said/

In certain cases, entrepreneurship has fallen prey to abusive falsehoods because of unfair competition, so the company managers welcome the legal changes as a regulator in the success of their business. “I believe that no worse thing can happen to a business than losing the consumers’ confidence. So at the end of the day when we successfully end a production process and hear individuals lobbying against us, we become really disappointed. This is a family business and we were planning to expand it, but we were slightly refrained due to this situation. But fortunately, the changes to the Criminal Code are a great achievement for us, because we cannot all be labelled as problematic. There are certainly cases of food counterfeiting, but they should not be generalized,” owner of the Extra Milk company said.

On his part, Prime Minister Edi Rama noted that the legal changes to the Criminal Procedure Code are the government’s challenge to take food safety to another level.

“It is our duty and we have taken over this complex and tough challenge to take the food safety to completely new level. The truth is that significant progress has been made regarding food safety over the past few years and situation is completely different compared to four or five years ago when businesses operating under fair competition rules and investing in meeting food safety standards were cornered because of the informality, abuses and endemic corruption etc.. However, on the other hand, there are still problems and we can’t deny them. Of course the media is not cautious, because by reporting and raising an issue they raise a serious alarm. This is a very sensitive area in the people’s life and it has a great psychological effect. For example, people were bombarded with speculations and raised alarm over alleged use of hormones in food, agricultural and dairy products as if every made in Albania product posed a threat to health, while 300 000 tons of Albanian products were exported to the EU member states last year and not a single truck was denied entry for violating food safety standards. So they are same products. It is not that certain products are export-bound products and other products destined to sow death here in Albania. Yet the truth is that in this battle we have identified flagrant cases of food safety violations that have been referred to the Prosecutor’s Office and the Agriculture Minister mentioned 95 cases. We should not wait for food-borne diseases and deaths so that actions are then launched, as the existing law and the Criminal Code unfortunately stipulates, and if no immediate death is caused then you are innocent. This kind of approach is completely blind, knowing that a sort of food which fails to meet the health safety standards, resulting into death after few years. If not death, such food products cause severe deformations to health and serious problems to consumers, increasing terrible moral or psychological or financial costs. So being convinced that we are not dealing with a majority but a dangerous minority we will go to the bottom of this battle and we will tolerate nobody. Therefore, no fines will now be applied. Whoever is caught and found involved in falsifying food that fails to meet any standards, including fake food, changing the expiry date and removing stamps will be punished by imprisonment. Maximum sentences are to be exacted because health is after all the dearest thing and it is the first guarantee that will be offered by this Authority. So the National Food Authority will act aggressively and cautiously without exercising useless controls and inspection actions on companies working in compliance with the regulations and fair competiveness rules and this will certainly help every company that develop long-term and visionary investment projects. This is also the reason why we have always opposed although continually being under every kind of attacks, critics and slanders via the social networks, in the parliament and TV channels “why we don’t allow villagers to sell a bottle of milk?” No, we won’t because the serious threat to health starts right there! No food is sold on the streets of the world we are seeking to integrate into and this happens for a simple reason, because by thinking you are helping someone, indeed you are harming every consumer. This is all about consumer protection and we are committed to doing this strongly just like we did with the electricity reform and a series of other important and painful reforms.”