Last week Jellen Goossens and Vlatka Vrdjolak Goossens returned to Albania to conduct practical training on assessment and categorisation of food establishments. They visited slaughterhouses, meat processing plants and milk processing plants to train a group of AKU inspectors. Representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development also participated in the training exercise.  

As part of Albania’s alignment with Chapter 12 of the EU acquis food establishments must be categorised in line with EU requirements. This will lead to development of a national programme to monitor an upgrading process for establishments to gradually reach EU standards.  Throughout this training programme the experts are also highlighting flexibility provisions under EU law that can be applied in certain conditions to protect the production and heritage of traditional foods without compromising on food hygiene.

A special thanks to the food establishments who facilitated the training sessions including Kazazi Slaughterhouse and Meat Processing, Chicken Farm, EHW, ADG Shpk (Lufra) and AGS Shpk (Zepa Natyral). 

This action is funded by the European Union and is implemented by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland in partnership with the Irish Department of Agriculture, Food and The Marine, the Finnish Food Safety Authority and Creative Business Solutions (CBS), Albania.