Regulatory Noncompliance Posing Threat of Retailing Nonconforming Food Products

Abstract

Background: Ensuring safety of food products, reducing the risk of damages to consumers, and optimizing the activities of supervisory authorities are the priorities of the Russian government policy. Inspection aimed at eliminating risk factors is one of the ways of achieving these goals. The attention of oversight bodies and food retailers shall be focused on compliance with mandatory requirements enabling prevention of food safety hazards and related health risks in consumers. Objective: To assess the impact of identified violations of legal requirements on the quality and safety of food products and to establish the efficiency of managerial decisions made to prevent retailing of nonconforming foods. Materials and methods: We analyzed results of laboratory testing of foodstuffs sampled in 5,923 grocery stores and the number of cases of regulatory noncompliance in them indicating the absent or improper systemic approach to safety management based on HACCP principles, all provided by the Sverdlovsk Regional Office of the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor) for the years 2016–2020. Results: We established a strong relationship between nonconforming food products sold and noncompliance with the Technical Regulation of the Customs Union 021/2011 on Food Safety. We revealed processes posing a potential threat of selling nonconforming products and thus requiring special control. The highest probability of encountering such products was detected in groceries selling a wide range of foodstuffs and serving more than 50 people per store. Conclusion: Our findings indicate the importance of considering the identified hazards caused by noncompliance with mandatory requirements and posing threat of retailing nonconforming food products during inspections. Ensuring a comprehensive approach and appropriate preventive measures within food quality and safety management by retailers and Rospotrebnadzor will encourage the former to reduce the category of risks of damage, to optimize the use of resources, to raise the efficiency of their activities, and to decrease the number of unsafe products sold.