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A new initiative in the process of reducing food waste

2021 m. January 16 d.

From now on, food producers and traders will be able to supply frozen fresh packed meat to charity canteens. On 15 January, amendments to legal acts providing for a possibility to freeze fresh packed meat of different kinds with expiry dates coming to an end this way ensuring conditions for extending the date of durability for food intended for charity or support in order to increase the sustainability in the food supply chain. These amendments to legal acts were initiated by the State Food and Veterinary Service (SFVS) to contribute to the common goal of the EU Member States to reduce the extent of food waste as well as having regard to objectives of the Farm to Fork Strategy of the European Commission and goals of the European Green Deal. Food is wasted or thrown out all over the food supply chain, therefore, all the EU Member States are seeking to reduce the food waste per capita on the retail and consumer levels by 2030. The SFVS drafted amendments to the Procedure for Handling Food Intended for Charity or Support, which provide for the possibility to freeze and supply to charity organisations for processing at charity canteens packed fresh meat of different kinds (poultry meat, pigmeat, beef, etc.) with the expiry date coming to an end, which is labelled with the indication of “Use by date...”. It should be noted that relevant requirements apply to the freezing process of food, i. e. fresh meat. They apply both to those establishments, which are going to supply this production for charity or support purposes, and to those who are going to receive it. One of the major conditions is that fresh meat products intended for charity or support will need to be adequately labelled to ensure the safety and health of consumers. For example, based on the provided recommendations, food products will have to be frozen not later than 12 or 24 hours accordingly before the expiry of the indicated date of durability “Use by date...”. Those recommendations also explain the procedure for the extension of the date of durability for the frozen food products. The plan is, in view of the experience gained, to consider a possibility to allow freezing a broader range of foods, for example, different meat products, as well as milk, confectionary products, different vegetables or fruits, etc., in the near future to help to save food.

In Lithuania, the movement of some wild boars is observed with the use of GPS transmitters

2021 m. January 15 d.

This is the third year that the State Food and Veterinary Service (SFVS) has participated in the international project “Defend”, which is based on the partnership of international scientific, industrial and governmental organisations. Industries are seeking to find new ways and methods for controlling African swine fever (ASF), to acquire new knowledge of the course of this disease and possible eradication methods. Lithuania is taking part in the project activities related to ASF prevention, management and control at pig production farms as well as in the wildlife, i. e. among wild boars. The project seeks to better understand properties of the ASF virus and ways of spreading among wild boars, to determine the distances at which the infection can be transmitted to other wild boars in a natural way, to record the movement of wild boars on the 24-hour basis, the distances that are covered by those animals in infected areas, and what are the probabilities of contacts between different wild boar groups in terms of transmitting the virus. For this purpose, wild boars in ASF infected areas from different age groups and of different sex have to be caught and marked with the use of special collars containing Global Positioning System (GPS) transmitters. With the help of GPS, data on the movement of wild boars within units of hunting areas in different seasons will be systematised, information on the living areas of wild boars and the range of their movement will be collected. Those tasks are planed to be accomplished in Lithuania by the end of 2021. To achieve that purpose, last year, specialists of the SFVS, having received consent from users of the hunting areas and a permission of the Environmental Protection Agency, installed 9 live catch traps for wild boars in Kaunas, Kaišiadorys, Trakai and Vilnius district municipalities, in a unit of Karalgiris professional hunting areas, units of the hunting areas of Žiežmariai hunting club, Skala hunting club, Trakai regional division of the State Forest Enterprise and Jovariškės hunting club “Elnias”. In the above areas, wild boars were lured in order to catch and mark them. In 2020, 22 wild boars were caught (20 of them were marked with yellow ear tags containing the phone number, which had to be called by the hunter who had hunted such a wild boar, to report the exact coordinates where the wild boar was hunted, and with special collars for wild boars with GPS transmitters). It should be noted that the caught wild boars were partly anesthetized to avoid their stress or injury at the time of marking. Collars with GPS transmitters of different producers (Spanish, German and Lithuanian) transmitting information on the location of the wild boars up to 48 times per day were used for marking wild boars. In the units of hunting areas where wild boars were caught, marked and set free again, no hunting restriction actions were applied. Out of the 20 marked wild boars (ten females and ten males) 2 wild boars have already been found dead. Tests of the carrions did not show that the animals had died from ASF, however, they failed to identify the exact cause of the deaths. One of the wild boars was found shot (as a result of likely poaching), 3 have been hunted, 2 dropped their collars, whereas collars of 5 other wild boars no longer transmit any signals most likely because of some technical problems in transmitters or because of large amounts of data recorded in the inner memory of the transmitters, therefore, the wild boars were asked to be hunted to ascertain that the information, which can be used for further analysis of data on wild boar movement, is being recorded by the transmitters. In 2021, 10 more wild boars are planned to be additionally marked both with ear tags and collars with GPS transmitters. This quantity would be sufficient for data analysis and for obtaining certain results and making conclusions. Therefore, the SFVS would like to address hunters in Lithuania with a request to communicate information by the phone, which is indicated on the ear tag, in case a marked wild boar is hunted, and to take off the collar with a GPS transmitter carefully and deliver it to the nearest territorial unit of the SFVS.

Season’s greetings

2020 m. December 23 d.

Warmest greetings for the Christmas season and the New Year 2021. May the upcoming year be a year of new opportunities and successful co-operation, rich in achievements and filled with joy and happiness. Best regards Darius Remeika Director of the State Food and Veterinary Service of the Republic of Lithuania

Commemorating the World Rabies Day: no cases of this disease are recorded in Lithuania

2020 m. September 25 d.

On 28 September each year, the World Rabies Day is commemorated to draw attention of the public to the threat of this fatally hazardous disease both to humans and animals as well as the importance of prevention with the emphasis of the enormous progress in the battle against rabies. According to information available at the State Food and Veterinary (SFVS), in the past two years, no cases of rabies have been recorded in Lithuania neither for wild, nor for domestic animals. “The absence of rabies in our country was achieved through the systematic implementation of the programme for eradication of rabies by the SFVS for fifteen years. This is a pleasing result indeed, however, diseases do not mind any borders, therefore, we must not relax, and animal keepers have to remember their responsibility to regularly vaccinate their animals against this dangerous disease, as rabies can be prevented only through the application of intensive preventive measures”, – said Mr Darius Remeika, Director of the SFVS. Back in 2005, the numbers of cases of rabies in our country were increasing dramatically (as many as 1652 cases were recorded). The disease was mostly prevalent among wild animals (80 per cent of all the cases). Before 2006, the preventive vaccination for prevention purposes was applied only for pet animals, whereas cattle and other livestock animals used to be vaccinated only in locations of outbreaks of the disease. Having started the implementation of the long-term programme for the eradication of rabies by distributing oral vaccine from aircrafts all over the country twice a year, positive results were recorded already in two years, i. e., in 2007, the recorded number of cases of rabies was three times smaller than in 2005. Analyses performed at the National Food and Veterinary Risk Assessment Institute (NFVRAI) this year confirm that the effectiveness of the vaccination of wild animals susceptible to the disease is very high, i. e. up to 84–92 per cent. Blood testing data analysis showed that nearly 45 per cent of wild animals susceptible to the disease (foxes and racoons) had developed immunity for the causative agent of rabies. Last case of rabies was diagnosed in Lithuania for a dead fox in the border area with Belarus in 2018. However, there are still cases of this disease both among domestic and wild animals in the neighbouring countries (Belarus and Poland), therefore, there is always a risk that infected wild animals might happen to come to Lithuania. Therefore, the vaccination of wild animals against rabies is further carried out twice a year – in the spring and in the autumn. At the time of the vaccination, baits with a vaccine against rabies are distributed from small aircrafts. This year, the spring vaccination of wild animals was carried out in April and May while the autumn vaccination is going to be started on 2 October. We would like to remind that owners of dogs, cats or ferrets are also obliged to vaccinate their pets against rabies once per 12 months, or if a long-acting vaccine is used the vaccination has to be performed in accordance with manufacturer’s instructions. The veterinarian who performs the vaccination has to make records with the indication of the date of the vaccination and the validity date of the vaccine in the vaccination certificate or in the pet passport. Diagnostic studies of rabies and studies of the effectiveness of the oral vaccination, which are carried out and which receive a lot of attention in Lithuania, demonstrate the effectiveness of combatting this fatal disease. According to information of the World Health Organisation, no more cases of rabies are recorded among human population in Europe. However, the infection is still prevalent in the continents of Africa, Asia and South America. The highest morbidity rates among adults and children are recorded in the continent of Asia, in particular, in India. Last fatal case from this disease in Lithuania was recorded in 2007.

The SFVS started implementation of one more EU twinning project in Moldova

2020 m. September 25 d.

In September, the State Food and Veterinary Service (SFVS), in consortium with three institutions from Europe, started implementation of an EU twinning project for further support of the Republic of Moldova. This is a large-scale project on the development and strengthening of agriculture, rural development and food safety, which is implemented by the SFVS jointly with colleagues from “Agrarmarkt“ (AMA) in Austria and the Agency for Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture (ARMA) in Poland. The project will last for three years. The implementing institutions will work in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment of Moldova (MARDE), the Agency for Intervention and Payments in Agriculture (AIPA) and the National Food Safety Agency (ANSA). The major objective of the twinning project is to support and to provide assistance in the development of an effective legal and institutional system for agriculture and rural areas in Moldova this way contributing to the sustainable development of agriculture, management of climate change effects and general transformations in the country. The aim is to improve the national legal regulation of food safety, official control in the animal and animal origin food sectors creating possibilities for producers of animal origin products in Moldova to get entitled for export of their production to the EU Member States as well as other countries. In the words of Director of the SFVS Mr Darius Remeika, significant initial steps had already been taken under the twinning projects previously implemented by the SFVS. Institutions in Moldova are provided actual opportunities to consolidate institutional capacities available at different institutions and to clearly define the scopes of food safety management, building the policy of agriculture and rural development, policy implementation, control, monitoring and assessment by separating powers and functions and, at the same time, encouraging the cooperation. “I believe that we have a good example of such cooperation in Lithuania. This is the cooperation between the SFSV, the National Paying Agency under the Ministry of Agriculture and the public institution Rural Business and Market Development Agency. For example, if a farmer applies for support for investments into tangible assets, processing of agricultural products, marketing or development, three state institutions act in cooperation, exchange information and data of registers, conducts inspections, provide conclusions of their assessment, etc. Processes within institutions are speedy and effective so that support to farmers is provided in a responsible and professional manner. I am sure that the longtime experience of the SFVS in expanding export markets and participating in different projects will help specialists of the beneficiary institutions to make an assessment of their legal documents, principles of organising the official control as well as different aspects of implementation of monitoring plans with the assessment of the compliance of animal origin food processing plants with EU food safety requirements”, – said Mr D. Remeika, Director of the SFVS. Experts of the SFVS, in the process of the implementation of project activities, will help ANSA in Moldova to implement provisions of requirements of EU legislation in the animal and animal origin food sectors. Furthermore, they will share information and provide recommendations for obtaining permissions to export poultry meat and composite products containing milk or meat products into EU Member States and other countries. Training both for ANSA specialists and representatives of business operators are planned under the project. Methodological assistance will be also provided to the major food safety laboratory of Moldova (Centrul Respublican de Diagnostica Veterinara).

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State food and veterinary service
State budgetary institution The Register of Legal Entities
code: 188601279

Address: Siesikų str. 19,
07170 Vilnius Lithuania
Tel. +370 5 240 4361
E-mail: info@vmvt.lt

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Published:
2020-09-10

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