Three deaths are associated with listeria-contaminated sausage from the company Wilke, when visiting the factory one day after the arranged closure, the inspectors found alarming conditions - despite cleaning. How could this happen, even though compliance with high hygiene standards should be checked regularly?
The consumer organization Foodwatch has found in a data analysis that in Germany about every third mandatory food control fails. Only about ten percent of 373 inspection offices stated that they had done all the statutory routine checks.
For the evaluation Foodwatch on the basis of the Consumer Information Act (VIG) has asked all competent 394 mostly municipal authorities, how many scheduled checks they would have to accomplish and how many actually took place. In Bavaria 18 offices refused an answer, in Brandenburg one. Two other authorities - in the cities of Hanover and Rostock - spoke of a control deficit, but did not mention specific figures.
250,000 controls were missing
The results reveal a significant deficit: According to Foodwatch, in 2018 the offices would have had to carry out around 250,000 more inspections nationwide than actually happened. As a rule, the municipalities are responsible for this, but the technical supervision is in the last resort in the federal states.
The situation was therefore particularly bad in Bremen and Berlin, where not even half of the prescribed food controls took place in 2018. In the city-state of Bremen, however, only one authority is responsible for monitoring. Hamburg performed best, with between 85 and 95 percent of scheduled inspections carried out. However, last year, according to Foodwatch, even one in ten food inspections failed.
In the graph you can see the breakdown by federal states. The results for the individual counties are given in the Foodwatch evaluation.
Serious staff shortage
According to Foodwatch, there is a shortage of staff across the country, so many controls could not take place. In the Hessian district of Waldeck-Frankenberg, where meat producer Wilke is based, only 3.15 full-time positions for almost 2,900 companies are planned. In the past year, the inspectors managed only half of the prescribed routine checks.
"If consumer protection authorities violate consumer protection regulations almost everywhere, this is a tangible political scandal," says Martin Rücker, Managing Director of Foodwatch Germany. "The controllers who do a hard job are let down by politics."
The organization demands more jobs as well as a redesign of the food control: Instead of the many municipal authorities, "in each federal state, a single, independent state institution should be responsible for controls," says Foodwatch. Offices should also be required to publish control results.
Controversy over new regulation - in the future fewer controls?
The frequency with which a business is routinely controlled depends on the nature and operation of the business. Building on this, the authorities divide the companies into risk classes. Anyone who processes fresh fish or meat is therefore checked more frequently than a kiosk with packaged goods. Even those who have noticed hygiene problems in the past can expect more controls.
This is regulated by an administrative regulation that the Federal Minister of Nutrition, Julia Klöckner, and the federal states want to renew. However, a dispute has erupted over the recast draft of the recast: Foodwatch accuses the ministry of wanting to reduce mandatory compulsory checks. This is especially true for companies in the highest risk class who currently need to be monitored daily. In addition, the states are allowed to deviate according to Foodwatch from the requirements.
The Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture claims the opposite: The risk class of companies should be determined differently in the future, the operating mode should be less crucial, said the Ministry on SPIEGEL request. This does not lead to fewer controls, but rather to a focus on controls "in order to increase the monitoring pressure in problem areas". By mid-2020, the ministry and countries want to agree.
