Descrizione
Puglia Region, the Experimental Zooprophylactic Institute of Puglia and Basilicata (IZSPB) and the Regional Agency for Environmental Protection of the Puglia Region (ARPA) presented in Bari, during a press conference in the Sala Di Jeso of the Presidency of the Puglia Region, the results of the control activities conducted in Puglia in the year 2022 for the evaluation of food safety and health of animal populations.
The excellent results achieved were summarized in a promotional video entitled "Puglia agri-food chain: definitely good!" created by Director Alessandro Piva.
The press conference was attended by the President of the Puglia Region, Michele Emiliano, the Regional Councilor for the Environment, Anna Grazia Maraschio, the Regional Councilor for Health, Rocco Palese, the General Director of ARPA Puglia, Vito Bruno, the General Director of the Experimental Zooprophylactic Institute (IZSPB), Antonio Fasanella, the Director of the Health and Well-being Promotion Section of the Puglia Region, Onofrio Mongelli.
The meeting was attended by Alessandro Piva, a well-known director, screenwriter and film producer, who oversaw the creative production of the communication campaign, and Tancredi Di Paola, the emerging director who directed the commercial.
"The Puglia Region deals with everything that improves the lives of the people of Puglia," said the President of the Puglia Region Michele Emiliano. “In particular, it deals with food controls, along the entire production and marketing chain, with the collaboration of the IZSPB, ARPA, the Carabinieri of the NAS and the Prevention Departments of the AASSLL”.
The Puglia Region is proud of the results obtained which demonstrate, in addition to the typicality and quality of the production, the safety of the food and the health of the animals raised. This campaign is an opportunity to promote our production, to reassure consumers, communicating the existence of an efficient control system that works daily to contain the risks deriving from food, animals and the environment, and is finally an invitation to encourage those involved in food production to do so in quality and safety.
For the Regional Health Councillor Rocco Palese "prevention in the context of food safety is an essential element in safeguarding people's health". The operation of the services on the territory and the network of regional laboratories is essential for achieving this important objective.
“The Report presented today brings us back to a fact that tells of the great attention of the Region, through this organization that is so important to us, strategic for the quantity and quality of the controls that are operated” is the comment of the Regional Councilor for the Environment Anna Grazia Maraschio. “These data lead us to be among the first in Italy for attention and controls”. Prevention is a key factor within this vision to ensure food safety and animal health so that they help us safeguard the health of citizens. Therefore, the data that emerge from the report express a truly important result, “for this we thank all the operators for the work they do daily for all of us".
"The dissemination of the results, relating to the control activities carried out, must constitute an important moment of reflection to evaluate the health status of livestock farming in our Region and the safety of the food chain to protect the health of citizens - commented Antonio Fasanella, General Director of the IZSPB. Our Institute has been involved for years in control activities to ensure the analyses required by national and European plans. The boundaries of surveillance tend to be increasingly broad due to the appearance of new risks, linked to the onset of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, including zoonotic diseases (West Nile Disease, Dengue, etc.), or connected to the contamination of food preparations. The IZSPB ensures, also through scientific research, constant and valid support to the national health service".
"Talking about food prevention for this Region so tied to the land is fundamental" is the comment of Alessandro Piva. "Our work has been that tells of this regional primacy, this particular attention to the health of its citizens and to the protection of the specificity of our territory".
From the Annual Report of the Multi-year Regional Control Plan on Food Safety and Animal Health, it emerges that Puglia, thanks to the number and quality of controls, ranks first at a national level for the average number of pesticides searched for on a single sample and second for the number of analyses transmitted to the Ministry of Health.
In 2022, in Puglia, a total of 5,424 samples (excluding drinking water) were sampled by the SIAN (Medical Service) and SIAV B (Veterinary Medical Service) of the Prevention Departments of Local Health Authorities, on which 281,642 analytical searches were performed.
The analyses of pesticide residues, in the face of 977 samples, constitute 90.5% (255,012 analyses) of all the analyses transmitted by the Puglia Region via the national flow called “Radisan”.
The Puglia Region ranks first at a national level in terms of performance of the average number of active ingredients searched for on a single sample and second as a Region for the number of analyses transmitted to the Ministry of Health in absolute terms.
All the activities carried out in 2022 are collected in the "Annual Report of the Multi-Year Regional Control Plan on Food Safety and Animal Health (Pcrp)", (https://www.sanita.puglia.it/archivio-news_det/-/journal_content/56/20182/relazione-annuale-sulla-sicurezza-alimentare-e-la-sanita-animale).
Overall, the following were carried out:
- 19,000 checks, including inspections, checks and audits of the 78,000 food sector operators in the regional territory;
- 8,000 samples of food, water, materials and objects in contact with food (MOCA);
- 580,000 analyses, tests and diagnoses for animal diseases in 6,600 farms, for the various species, as part of the surveillance and eradication plans for infectious animal diseases;
- 65,000 Urban Hygiene interventions to combat stray animals and monitor the welfare of pets;
- 1,400 inspections on animal welfare in breeding, slaughter and transport.
These activities were conducted by the Regional Health Service Operators of the Veterinary and Medical Services of the Prevention Department of the Local Health Authorities of Puglia, who are responsible for the action in the field, and by the official laboratories: Istituto Zooprofilattico di Puglia e Basilicata and Arpa Puglia, which scrupulously analyse the products from every point of view, microbiological, toxicological, virological, parasitological, chemical.
Veterinarians, Doctors, Biologists, Chemists, Microbiologists, Laboratory and Prevention Technicians, Food Technologists, Physicists, Statisticians who every day, with a multidisciplinary approach, work with a single goal: to guarantee the health of our community, to guarantee that the environment, animals, food do not represent a risk to health. Puglia is an extraordinary Region and is loved for its environmental and landscape value, for its inhabitants, but also for its traditions and for the quality of the flavors it can produce.
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