The European Commission’s health and safety unit has published two reports examining milk and dairy product controls in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Greece, according to Food Safety News.
An audit in Bosnia and Herzegovina in June 2023 by DG Sante found major issues with controls on products intended for export to Europe, and six recommendations were made.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is authorised to import certain consignments of milk and dairy products derived from raw milk into the EU. It also has an approved control plan for pharmacologically active substances, pesticides, and contaminants in milk.
The visit revealed authorities do not have established procedures to allow effective cooperation and coordination, including planning and reporting of results of official controls, enforcement and follow up. However, this is partly mitigated due to regular controls by the main authority at EU-listed establishments.
As the national requirement for milk collection centers to be registered is not consistently enforced, raw milk sourced from non-registered and non-approved sites is used to make products destined for the EU, said auditors.
They also found raw milk criteria for plate count or somatic cell count are not enforced consistently, resulting in the acceptance of non-compliant raw milk for processing dairy products.
Bosnian authorities suspended the certification of one of the three establishments visited after the auditor identified that non-compliant milk was routinely processed into dairy products for export to the EU.
The suspension was in place until proper segregation of compliant and non-compliant milk was applied and verified by the main authority.
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