Radio România Internațional

Tag: food safety

  • March 26, 2019 UPDATE

    March 26, 2019 UPDATE

    CONSULTATIONS President Klaus Iohannis Tuesday had consultations with representatives of civil society regarding the justice referendum. The President last week said he was almost determined to call a referendum coinciding with the European Parliament election of May 26. The president’s announcement followed the Constitutional Court’s ruling sanctioning a referendum on the same day as the European Parliament election. On Wednesday the head of state will also hold talks with representatives of magistrate associations on the current state of affairs in the judiciary.




    VISIT Vaccination, the assessment of medical technology, tobacco control, cancer prevention and antibiotic resistance were among the topics approached in Bucharest on Tuesday by the Healthcare Minister Sorina Pintea and the EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Vytenis Andriukaitis. Previously, the EU official was also received by President Klaus Iohannis. Vytenis Andriukaitis attended the Global Forum on “Human Rights and a World without Tobacco and called for the elimination of tobacco products from supermarkets, considering it is not rated as foodstuff. Vytenis Andriukaitis is on an official visit to Bucharest over March 26-27, and on Wednesday he will attend the opening of the 4th annual conference on tobacco control organized by the European Network for Smoking and Tobacco Prevention jointly with the Romanian Pneumology Society.




    DST The European Parliament Tuesday voted, by a large majority, to end daylight saving time in the EU as of 2021. Member states will therefore scrap the practice of clock changes twice a year, and will choose to keep either permanent summer time or winter time. Under the draft resolution, the countries that decide to make summer time permanent will change clocks for the last time on the last Sunday of March 2021. Conversely, the countries that opt for permanent standard time will change clocks one final time in October 2021. The European Commission proposed to end biannual clock changes in 2018, after a poll that shows overwhelming support for the move, with 84% of 4.6 million respondents in favour of abolishing daylight saving.




    EU-CHINA Germanys Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emanuel Macron and the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker Tuesday held talks in Paris with Chinese President Xi Jinping about future relations between Europe and China. The Chinese President is on a tour of Europe to gather support for his project, “The New Silk Road, aimed at linking China to Europe by means of a thousand-billion-dollar investment by 2030. Several EU states have signed protocols expressing their desire to join the project, and last week Europes third-largest economy, Italy, currently facing severe economic imbalances, became the first G7 country to sing. European Commission representatives have called for the immediate establishment of a joint strategy, concerned with Chinese investment in key sectors in Member States, such as electricity grids, high-speed rail networks and port infrastructure.



    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • Food safety under the spotlight

    Food safety under the spotlight

    Around 70% of Romanians illnesses are caused by food and eating, while food additives are considered the third biggest cause of death worldwide after drug and medicine consumption and traffic accidents. The use of additives is not justified if their dosage poses a threat to consumer health, diminishes the nourishing quality of food products and hides certain major defects. Most food products contain additives, many of which have been proven to be hazardous for humans.

    This is why some countries in southeastern Europe have notified the European Commission with respect to the double standards in food quality. They accuse some western companies of marketing inferior quality products under the same label as in the west. On a visit to Bucharest, the European Commissioner for health and food safety said it was unacceptable to have double standards in the quality of food products depending on the country where these products are marketed. He promised a common methodology to allow member countries to carry out the necessary tests, as well as an appropriate legal framework.

    He emphasised that these food products of lower quality have a long-time negative effect on consumer health, leading to bigger costs, given that they have a higher content of sugar, which, if consumed for a long time, creates significant problems, cancer or chronic diseases. A working group has been set up in Romania with representatives from the agriculture ministry, the Sanitary and Veterinary Authority and the Consumer Protection Agency to identify cases of double standards in the quality of food products imported from Western Europe.

    The results of a comparative study conducted this summer on food products suspected of being of lower quality showed differences in 9 out of 29 samples, but the Romanian officials said the respective products are not a threat to peoples health. The subject has also been discussed in Bratislava last week at a summit where Romania was also present, in an attempt to combat the marketing of lower quality products in the European Unions younger members. The participants in the summit established a method of collaboration to identify the products that may show different quality parameters depending on where they are marketed. Romanian experts will thus work with the Euro MPs to regulate this field.