ECJ: the food retailer is responsible for quality!

Meat analytic

Consumers who buy packaged fresh meat in a supermarket are entitled to the meat being microbiologically safe up until the end of the use-by date.

 

In a recent ruling the ECJ backed Austrian food inspectors and fined a branch manager of a supermarket chain for salmonella found in a sample of packed turkey meat.

 

The branch manager argued that the meat had already been packed and packaged by the manufacturer. The salmonella contamination, she claimed, was therefore outside her sphere of responsibility. The ECJ contradicted this view and confirmed that the distributor of the goods has to guarantee that the goods are safe for his customers up until the end of the use-by date. The fine handed down was therefore lawful.

Your advantage: our experts assist you with the testing of microbiological safety

At our AGROLAB laboratory sites

 

we carry out microbiological tests on food inexpensively and reliably using accredited culture methods and sometimes superfast PCR methods.

 

With sensitive products like fresh meat, fresh fish, seafood, raw milk products and gourmet salads as well as with packaged goods, take regular product samples and have them checked by our experts for microbiological safety and sensory quality at the end of the use-by date.

 

Just by proving that you have categorically fulfilled your commercial duty of care can safeguard you from sanctions such as the one imposed by the highest court of the EU in the case described.

 

(Source: judgment of the Eur. Court of Justice (Fourth Chamber) of 13 November 2014. Ute Reindl vs.  Bezirkshauptmannschaft [District Administrative Authority] Innsbruck. ECLI:EU:C:2014:2370)