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Wiesbaden (dpa / lhe) - In Hesse there were recently around 60,000 food processing companies that were subject to monitoring and regular reviews.
In many municipalities and districts, however, fewer controls were carried out than actually intended, as can be seen from a response from the Environment Ministry to a state parliament request from the AfD.
Overall, there were almost 34,700 planned so-called risk-based controls nationwide in 2019 - the target would have been a good 49,960.
In addition, there were a further 13,700 unscheduled inspections.
"The organization of the official food monitoring and thus also the fulfillment of the control quotas is in the sovereignty of the districts or independent cities," said the ministry.
The reasons for lower quotas are different, explained a spokeswoman.
The structure of the companies within a district could play a role - for example, many small snacks can be checked more quickly than many large ones - or the personnel situation.
According to the figures, the degree of compliance with the controls varies considerably: in 2019 this was between 29 percent and 127 percent, depending on the district and municipality, and between 17.2 and 140 percent in 2018.
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«We want to ensure a high quality of food monitoring in Hessen.
This is an ongoing task that we take care of continuously, ”the ministry said.
“After the last target / actual comparison, we wrote to the districts and pledged our support to achieve the control rates.
We want to keep high control rates and help improve low ones. "
Further training offers for staff or improved IT equipment could be helpful.
It is welcomed that some staff increases have already taken place.
The director of the Hessian district assembly, Matthias Drexelius, explained that the districts “do their utmost within the framework of the funding provided by the state to ensure effective protection of the population in the area of food controls”.
They also do everything in their power to achieve this goal in areas in which there have been discernible deficits in the past.
Looking at the 2019 figures, he said: “We are assuming that these will have improved significantly in the course of 2020, after the events and discussions about the Wilke company at the end of 2019, and that this will be the case as part of the annual survey in April 2020 will show. "
After the scandal surrounding the North Hessian sausage manufacturer Wilke, the state had partially reorganized food monitoring.
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Answer state parliament request