site.btaBulgarian Food Safety Agency Officer to Be Fired over Warehouse with Spoiled Foods

A high-ranking officer of the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency (BFSA) will be dismissed over the case of a cold storage facility in Haskovo, Southern Bulgaria, which was found to contain spoiled foods on March 20, caretaker Minister of Agriculture and Food Ivan Hristanov reported here on Monday. On March 21, the Minister said in an interview for Nova TV that inspectors discovered hundreds of tonnes of food products with no expiration dates, unguarded, and stored under unsuitable conditions. These products were either repackaged to be returned to the retail network or used as raw materials in the food industry.

Hristanov said that the BFSA officer attempted to obstruct the inspection by delaying an order for it and by citing personal reasons to delay the official vehicles travelling from Sofia to Haskovo. The Minister reported: "Documents are being submitted to the Prime Minister [Andrey Gurov] today [on Monday] to have this employee removed, and a report will also be filed with the police to determine whether there was any misconduct under another party's influence." Hristanov reported that the individual in question also attempted to influence the inspections related to sunflower seeds from ships arriving in Burgas from Argentina. This official held a sufficiently high-ranking position at the BFSA to have been able to influence all of the agency's decisions. "The fact that he tried to influence the inspection in Haskovo suggests that he may have ties to the food mafia, since the inspecting teams had no idea where they were going or why," Hristanov concluded.

Inspections at the food warehouse in question in Haskovo are continuing, with the main goal being to determine the exact volume and impact of its existence, as public health is the top priority. Investigators will examine how much food has passed through there, when, who delivered it, among other details. Hristanov said: "What we have learned is that this involves food returned from the retail network, either because it has expired or for some other reason. It is repackaged there and subsequently re-entered into the retail network. In other words, there is a supply chain leading to this warehouse, followed by redistribution. We need to see how this entire group operated and what the impact is on regular trade."

The case was referred to the General Directorate National Police and the General Directorate for Combating Organised Crime on Monday. The inspection will continue into next week because of its massive scale. The Minister noted that this is a massive warehouse containing hundreds of food items, some even coming from Arab countries. He said that inspections are continuing at other such locations, such as illegal slaughterhouses. There is additional information regarding the existence of other warehouses for the illegal distribution of food.