Food safety

Health requirements of poultry products

Beyond the general health requirements concerning food, meat and meat-based products are under an even stricter regulation in Hungary. Strict hygienic requirements apply to each phase of the production from breeding, feeding, processing and distribution. Meat does not contain any phatogens or chemicals that can be harmful for human health.

Feeding

Law prohibits the use of such substances for feeding that can damage the health of either the animals or humans, defines the methods of control, the conditions of by-product-disposal and processing. It is prohibited to use hormone products or chemicals with hormone effect for poultry-feeding in Hungary.

Processing

Twenty food and animal health controlling centres check continuously the operation and production of the processing plants in Hungary. Meat control is managed in the plants by the their local branch offices in charge of foodstuff-hygiene. The National Food Control Institute is the head of security tasks and foodstuff-hygiene. It organises the control of laboratory checking of remaining materials and the professional activity of the controlling laboratories.

The trademark programme

In spring 2002, the Hungarian Poultry Product Board launched the Controlled Hungarian Poultry Programme, which is based on the use of a trademark for each poultry product (be it raw or processed meat) that is bred on Hungarian forage, fulfils the requirements of the quality and safety regulations, whether it is a lush or a processed product. If the consumer sees this trademark on the product, he can be sure that the product:

• was made by a Hungarian producer,
• has undergone strict quality control,
• its safety is guaranteed by the Poultry Product Board,
• was made of Hungarian raw material,
• and it is delicious!!!

Poultry consumption in Hungary

Poultry are a very popular type of meat in Hungary even in international comparison. It is the only meat whose consumption has steadily increased in the past ten years. Moreover, the consumption per capita is higher than the European average at more than 30 kg per capita in 2002, according to the statistics of the Poultry Product Board.

Export

Hungarian poultry import is insignificant; the vast majority of it is made up of breeding products. Export, in turn, is of major importance. In the past decade poultry never ranked lower than second in the list of agricultural export products, and in two years it even won the first place. Poultry export has substantially exceeded pork and wheat industries.