Istanbul Provincial Director of Agriculture and Forestry Ahmet Yavuz Karaca, "We have imposed an administrative fine of 26 million 500 thousand Turkish Liras. We have filed a criminal complaint with the prosecutor's office about 59 businesses."
ISTANBUL Provincial Directorate of Agriculture and Forestry, Food and Feed Branch of meat and meat products businesses operating in Istanbul was audited.
During the inspections, the hygiene conditions, physical conditions and the temperatures of the meats were inspected. Food control teams, meat and chicken samples to make imitation and adulteration examination.
Ahmet Yavuz Karaca, who participated in the audit, said, "We are conducting audits in 81 provinces upon the instruction of our Minister Bekir Pakdemirli. We are currently in the field with 758 auditors in 39 districts. We are a company that operates white meat and red meat in Bahçelievler. Does it have minimum technical hygienic conditions in employment, is there a ministry approval, is there a veterinarian, is there ISO certificate? We're checking them. We check the hygiene and hygiene of the employees. We took samples of red meat here. Species will be determined. We'il see if there's horses, donkeys, mules and pork. We will also see if there are any problems in terms of microbiology."
Stating that the audits are done day and night, Karaca said, "In 2019, we performed 191 thousand audits in 110 thousand enterprises in Istanbul. We found non-compliance in approximately 4 thousand 500 businesses. We applied an administrative fine of 26 million 500 thousand liras. We have filed a criminal complaint to the prosecutor's office about 59 businesses. In this way, the number of enterprises producing meat and meat products with the approval of the ministry in Istanbul is 500. In this type of businesses, our friends in other districts continue their audits. All is done simultaneously in Turkey. Then, milk, bread, butchers, school canteens and mass consumption places will do inspection day and night."
THE BEST AUDITOR IS THE CONSUMER
Advising citizens to report inappropriate places, Karaca said, "The best auditor is the consumer. If they report an adverse event to an ALO 174 Food Line, we are obliged to notify them within 15 days. We are as close as a phone," he said.