April 21, 2023 - Minister of Agriculture Marija Vuckovic said on Thursday that the results of meat control on the Croatian market have been quite good. In 2021 only 1.5 percent of samples of Croatian meat were recorded as not having met the criteria.

"The findings of all these years are quite good as far as I've followed it. According to the results for the year 2021, the number of non-compliant samples was only three out of 202 that were taken. As for the level of nitrites, we had two non-compliant samples out of 140", said the Minister of Agriculture for RTL Danas, as reported by Index.

"Hormones are forbidden"

The minister added that business entities that put meat on the Croatian market behave responsibly. Otherwise, according to the Food Additives Act, they will pay fines, which usually range between 30 and 50 thousand Croatian kuna for legal entities, with the most severe offences amounting to around EUR 13 thousand.

"As far as hormones are concerned, they are prohibited. We control that through authorised laboratories and the State Inspectorate. The findings have also been good in that area, with the percentage of non-compliant samples being below one percent," the minister answered when asked if Croatian citizens were buying hormone-filled chicken meat.

"Additives are injected into fresh meat"

However, this does not mean that food with additives is not consumed in Croatia, but they must be injected in accordance with the regulations. Illegal additives must not be injected, and the composition must be clearly declared, noted Vučković. "Additives are injected into fresh meat, but only fresh meat that is not intended for fresh consumption, rather as a processed product," she said.

When it comes to the presence of meat of domestic origin on the market, Vučković answered that 70 percent of cow meat, about 60 percent of pig meat, and over 90 percent of poultry is of local origin.

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ZAGREB, 3 Feb 2022 - PIK Vrbovec is Croatia's first meat company that has begun exporting to Japan, the Ministry of Agriculture said in a statement on Thursday.

After meeting the strict Japanese meat processing and production criteria, last month PIK Vrbovec made its first delivery of baby beef to the HoReCa channel in Japan. The company was issued with an HVI 21-2 veterinary certificate thanks to successful cooperation between the Croatian Ministry of Agriculture and the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries.

The CEO of PIK Vrbovec, Slaven Ružić, was quoted as saying that this is a very important market for his company because Japan is the world's second-largest importer of meat and meat products, notably high-quality baby beef.

"We are proud to be the first Croatian meat company to export its meat to Japan. This is yet another confirmation of the quality of Croatian livestock production and excellent news for domestic producers in general," Ružić said.

The Ministry said that this was the result of years of work by its Veterinary Service on animal disease eradication and control programmes.

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