Analytics, Latvia, Markets and Companies

Examining FVS's registry of enterprises, Diena concludes that it is safe to buy food in one in ten Mego shops and in one in six Maxima or Elvi supermarkets.

Among seven biggest food retailers, supermarket chain Rimi is the best in terms of food quality, however, only in 27% of all Rimi supermarkets the customers "can buy food without the sense of engaging into an extremely risky deal", the newspaper reports.

When asked by Diena, why FVS does not warn the customers about the potential health risks, when buying food at most supermarkets, FVS's Head of Food Control Department Tatjana Marcenkova explains: "the situation is constantly changing, furthermore we can not say that all the supermarkets are the same – each outlet has its own struggles."

Planned and contingency inspections at Rimi and Maxima supermarkets take place several times per week, smaller shops are being checked once per week. In case if FVS would have more money and staff resources, the inspections would be carried out more often, Diena informs.

As reported, already 25 people, including six children, are confirmed to have gotten ill with food poisoning from prepared food that they had bought at the "Maxima" supermarket on 67 Deglava Street in Riga.

As FVS's Director General Mareks Samohvalovs admitted in an interview on Latvian State Radio today, another Maxima prepared meals production unit has been shut down. However, he did not disclose the exact Maxima supermarket, where the breaches have been discovered.