Food hygiene
at Rungis Market
Food hygiene at the Rungis Market
The world’s largest wholesale market for fresh produce is exemplary regarding of food hygiene.
The veterinary services have a permanent office at the Market and further vouch for the impeccable quality of the products ; their action complement the health and safety certificates issued to companies.
Concerning the buildings, Semmaris has undertaken a major investment programme aimed at eliminating any risk of chilled-chain interruption.
For meat products, these investments concerned the tripe and meat pavilions and part of the poultry pavilion. The two pavilions devoted to dairy products were also modernized, and the seafood pavilion was completely renovated.
A workshop to process game meat was built to inspect wild game arriving directly from hunting venues.
Even though the health requirements differ from those for animal products, various improvements were made to the fruit and vegetable pavilions to display the products under better conditions, sheltered from bad weather.
As regards the products per se, the veterinary services carry out the necessary daily controls in the tenants' units.
Through the health and safety certificate issued by the authorities, each company makes a specific commitment on the following points: :
- To have well-maintained, clean premises: premises complying with standards, a cleaning plan, to purchase performing cleaning equipment. For cutting premises: cleaning, disinfection with efficiency test by surface sample analyses
- Respecting chilled-chain: temperature reader for every refrigerated room, temperature control procedure upon taking delivery and management of non conformities, staff awareness through appropriate training, thermal insulation, improved cold output, refrigerated inbound/outbound platforms for animal products.
- Product traceability: manual or computer records of the manufacturer’s batch number or use-by-date, allocation of batch number for inventory management
Trade associations or the larger companies also have quality officers to prevent any such problems.
Food safety at the Market
The Market houses the headquarters of the departmental veterinary services - Direction Départementale des Services Vétérinaires (DDSV) – as well as a customs and office, which controls and simplifies import and export operations. The latter notably controls imported products with customs, who have an office there. In addition, the regional plant protection service - Service Régional de la Protection des Végétaux (SRPV) – and the departmental competition, consumption and fraud office - Direction Départementale de la Concurrence, de la Consommation et des Fraudes (DDCCRF) – regularly intervene at the Market.
On 11 January 2007, in application of the order dated 8 June 2006, which in turn transposed the community rules relating to food hygiene dated 29 April 2004, a memorandum from the French ministry of agriculture and fisheries stipulated new licensing conditions, the fulfilment of which was verified by inspections of the seafood pavilion.
Semmaris also headed the project for a guide to good hygiene practice within the World Union of Wholesale Markets, which it presented to the permanent committee on the food chain and animal health in Brussels. .
