Assessment of the relevance of requirements of the current sanitary legislation for food retailing

Abstract

Introduction: In order to assess the relevance of sanitary regulations in relation to food retailing we analyzed data on inspections of 12,001 enterprises and expert actions taken by the Sverdlovsk Regional Rospotrebnadzor Office and the Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology in the Sverdlovsk Region in 2016-2018. Results: We found a low proportion of violations of the requirements of sanitary regulations SP 2.3.6.1066-01, Sanitary and epidemiological requirements for trade organizations and the turnover of food raw materials and food products in them, ranging from 5.9 % to 6.3 % and its significant difference in some cases ranging from 0 % to 36 %. During inspection, compliance with 42 out of 131 paragraphs (32.6 %) was not checked or violations were not detected due to the impossibility to exercise control, recommendatory nature of some clauses, the failure to comply with which cannot be considered a violation, or irrelevance of certain items, the requirements of which are outdated. The proportion of prevalent violations related to the requirements for equipment, packaging facilities, storage and sale of food products was quite high and amounted to 27.9 % in 2016, 25.1 % in 2017, and 23.1 % in 2018, thus posing the risk of nonconforming products. Laboratory testing of samples taken within supervisory activities demonstrated noncompliance with chemical, microbiological, and parasitological requirements for food, the rates of which decreased in 2016-2018 with a simultaneous increase by 2.5 % in terms of counterfeiting. Respondents (33.3 %) from 481 surveyed food retailers proposed a long list of amendments to sanitary regulations to ensure safety of food products sold. We conclude that the current sanitary regulations need to be updated, especially in terms of management and control measures, taking into account risk-based surveillance and food quality and safety management systems.