State Food and Veterinary Control

State food and veterinary control designed to protect consumers, animals and the environment from dangerous agents in the food and veterinary fields is not effective enough. In order to ensure that inspections are carried out in high-risk entities, that they do not create an excessive administrative burden on business, and that the resources of the Service are used optimally, it is necessary to improve the control planning processes, direct supervisory actions to sensitive economic operators, focus on prevention measures, according to the audit of “State Food and Veterinary Control” carried out by the National Audit Office.

The State Food and Veterinary Service oversees about 117,000 economic operators but does not know how many agricultural and veterinary control operators carry out sensitive activities, as 83 % of them are not subject to risk assessment. Between 2019 and 2021, only 2 % of all veterinary inspections and 19 % of food inspections were carried out in sensitive operators, although inspections of such entities should be dominant for the efficient use of the Service’s resources. 

“Almost half of the inspections carried out by the State Food and Veterinary Service were unplanned and were not justified by the importance of the risk. The Service initiated unplanned inspections for almost all complaints received, of which one third have been confirmed during the audit period. This increases the administrative burden and prevents the efficient use of resources", says Rasa Pupeikytė-Usačiova, the representative of the National Audit Office.

In order to ensure animal health, properly regulated quality control of veterinary services should be carried out. Requirements for the assessment of the health status of animals and for the state control of veterinary services are required in order to assess the treatments chosen and applied. The qualification requirements for the veterinarian should be laid down.

The National Audit Office issued recommendations to the State Food and Veterinary Service and the Ministry of Agriculture. The implementation of the recommendations will improve the control planning, implementation and prevention processes: an analysis of the effectiveness of preventive measures will be carried out and support for business start-ups will be strengthened, regulation of quality control of veterinary services will be improved, etc. This will prevent the entry of unsafe and low-quality food on the market and animal cruelty.