Minister: Lithuania must pay for false fish accusations

  • 2009-01-14
  • Staff and wire reports

CLEAN CANS: Latvian authorities did not find any problems with the canned fish, and are now requesting compensation for the lost batch.

RIGA - Latvian Agriculture Minister Martins Roze has said that the state of Lithuania should compensate the losses of a Latvian fish processing company after it was forced to withdraw its products from Lithuanian shelves due to a faulty warning system.

The Latvian Agriculture Ministry's press service said that the ministry had sent a letter to its Lithuanian counterpart asking how the state planned to compensate Kolumbija LTD after the Food and Veterinary Service forced the company to recall an entire batch of the product 's a total of some 14,400 cans of fish.
On Dec. 2, 2008, the Lithuanian Food and Veterinary Service issued a report claiming to have found 11 larvae in a can of "fish filet in tomato sauce" produced by the Latvian company.

"We believe that the Early Warning System report about worms allegedly found in the canned fish products made by the Latvian fish cannery Kolumbija LTD was unsubstantiated and Lithuania should compensate the Latvian company for the damages and to extend its apologies to the producer," Roze said.
After hearing of the report, the Latvian Food and Veterinary Service conducted an inspection at Kolumbija LTD on Dec. 8, and tested 14 samples from the allegedly contaminated batch of canned fish products. None of the samples tested positive for larvae or any parasitic diseases.

Representatives of the Latvian Agriculture Ministry said the process used by Kolumbija LTD to can the fish made it virtually impossible for larvae to develop within the product. 
The ministry said that the strict canning procedure 's which includes sterilizing the cans at a temperature of 1200 degrees Celsius 's excluded even the theoretical possibility that the larvae could have developed within the can.

There is therefore a reasonable level of doubt that the larvae developed only after the cans were opened.
Kolumbija LTD closed the year 2007 with a turnover of one million lats (1.42 million euros) and earned a profit of 43,200 lats.