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Health scandals with mouse droppings, cockroaches and co-government authorities concealed disgust with bakeries
Just a few years ago, the food scandal involving the Bavarian bakery Müller-Brot caused weeks of headline news. At that time, disgusting things such as mouse dung and cockroaches had been found in the production facilities. The scandal does not appear to have significantly improved. Some bakeries still have serious hygiene problems, as a recent report shows. The authorities keep the conditions secret.
Authorities did not inform customers
At the beginning of 2012, reports of catastrophic hygienic conditions, which had been ruling for years in the Bavarian bakery Müller-Brot, came to light. "The authorities had known about it at an early stage, but did not inform the bakery's customers. The media outrage over the mice excrement, the cockroaches, the worms, but especially about the late public information was great, "says the report" Bavarian bread "the consumer organization Food Watch. Five years after the scandal, the question arises as to whether consumers are now better informed about hygiene deficiencies in bakeries and other food businesses. The consumer organization says "no".
Mouse waste, cockroaches, mold: in some bakeries, there are often disgusting conditions. The authorities conceal the grievances. (Image: monticellllo / fotolia.com) Mouse feces, beetle infestation, mold, dirt
In the report "Bavarian bread" Foodwatch made control reports of the Bavarian food authorities public, which show that in several large bakeries in Bavaria over the years prevailed again and again disgusting conditions.
Whether baked cockroaches or beetle infestation: As the experts write in a communication, consumers have not heard anything about the sometimes catastrophic hygienic conditions.
For some controls, everything was fine, but in other cases, according to the control report, for example, "clearly visible pest infestation", "massive" impurities or "black spots, probably mold".
According to the information, complaints from customers were again and again responsible for controls.
For example, a customer found a foreign object in a roll, which was identified by the Bavarian State Office for Health and Food Safety (LGL) as the "pest of a small mammal". Another time a foreign body was identified as a baked-in "German cockroach".
Even more hygiene scandals?
Consumers did not learn anything about the conditions, as the results of official food controls are generally not published.
However, Foodwatch has applied to the competent authorities for the distribution of control results to eight of Bavaria's largest bakery companies via the so-called Consumer Information Act (VIG).
The organization received information on 69 inspections from 2013 to 2016 at the companies Bachmeier, Beck, Heinz, Hiestand, Höflinger, Hofpfisterei, Ihle and LSG. The results are documented in the report "Bayerisches Brot".
But even if individual results are available, much remains unclear for the population: "As long as not all control results are public, the question must be asked: Which hygiene scandals do the authorities still know without informing them?" Says Johannes Heeg from Foodwatch.
No health hazards
"The inspectors in the production plants of the companies Bäcker Bachmeier, Der Beck and Landbäckerei Ihle have detected particularly unhygienic conditions," states the Foodwatch report.
"Even if there were no health risks from the food produced there, it is unacceptable for Foodwatch that the customers have not heard anything and thus continued to eat buns and breads from bakeries, in some of which disgusting conditions prevailed.
The research shows that we need a reorientation of food monitoring in Germany, according to Foodwatch. The authorities must be obliged to publish without exception all results of the official controls.
This is what creates an incentive for food companies to abide by hygiene rules every day and ensures fair competition in which clean businesses are no longer stupid.
So far, the legal basis is missing - officials want to publish information, therefore, threaten the lawsuits of the companies concerned.
Nationwide, every fourth operation complains
According to Foodwatch, conditions like those in Bavaria are not the exception, but the rule: every year in Germany, one in four controlled food operations are objected to, mainly because of hygiene violations.
Although the Union and the SPD had already promised in 2013 in their coalition agreement to provide legal clarity at the federal level for better consumer information. This promise was not fulfilled.
As long as the Confederation does not ensure legal certainty, each state could also prescribe transparency with its own state law - and thus prevent cases like those in Bavaria in the future.
Denmark as a role model
From the perspective of the consumer organization, Denmark should serve as a model for reforming food control. There, food companies have been obliged to hang the inspection results on the front door for 15 years. The test reports are also available on the internet.
The result is summarized and evaluated with the help of a smiley. Since the introduction of the "smiley-system", the rate of contested companies has halved, from 30 to 15 percent (Germany around 25 percent). Meanwhile, other countries, including France and the United Kingdom, have introduced similar systems.
Years ago, Foodwatch launched a hands-on campaign calling for the smiley face system for Germany. "With the secrecy must be over!" It says there. (Ad)