Health Hazards Online retailers are more likely to violate food refrigeration regulations

Food refrigeration regulations are often disregarded by online retailers
Since food can spoil quickly, especially at high summer temperatures, the cold chain should always be observed during transport. But online merchants often do not comply with the law. Checkers found deficiencies in the continuous cooling, especially in fish products.

Too warm stored fish
If fish is stored too warm or otherwise wrong, threatens health dangers. Among other things, there is the risk of fish poisoning, which may be accompanied by unpleasant symptoms such as fever, diarrhea, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting. To prevent this, customers should ask their fishmonger for a bag of ice cream in order to bring their purchase home cooled. But what if the purchase takes place online?

If fish is stored too warm, health risks threaten after consumption. Purchased goods should therefore always be brought home refrigerated. But what if the purchase is online? (Image: milkare / fotolia.com)

Online retailers often do not keep cold chain
Then there is obviously increased danger. Because online merchants often disregard the statutory cooling regulations when delivering fresh food. This emerges from the current annual report of food and feed monitoring in Baden-Württemberg. "In 2015, our inspectors focused on monitoring fish products to be refrigerated while monitoring Internet commerce. The sobering balance: in the majority of the samples obtained, the cold chain was not adhered to during shipping, "said Consumer Protection Minister Peter Hauk in a statement.

Control Authority examined various products
As the newspapers of the spark media group (Saturday issues) reported, examined the Baden-Württemberg control authority CVUA five fresh products, three smoked fish samples and two frozen products. "All dealers had the goods delivered to the CVUA by major logistics companies without special refrigerated vehicles. Although some of the packages contained chilled or dry ice, the majority of the products did not guarantee compliance with the cold chain, "states the current report.

Samples showed some "increased germ counts"
According to the newspaper reports, the goods arrived at eight test purchases at too high a temperature. In addition, it was said that some samples, especially at the end of the best before date, had "increased bacterial counts". In addition, seven samples had labeling defects. Hauk said, "I recommend that consumers look for directions to cool when shipping or to agree on a delivery date when ordering refrigerated food.".

Legal action initiated
According to the newspaper reports, a spokesman for the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Consumer Protection warned against health risks and called on mail-order companies to review and improve the transport systems. According to the reports, the spokesman also said that legal action would be taken. (Ad)