The Ministry of Trade and Industry, ie the Accreditation Directorate has marked World Accreditation Day with several activities.
The Minister of Trade and Industry, Vesel Krasniqi, attended the roundtable organized in honour of this day, where he emphasized the role of accreditation in improving food safety.
"As Minister of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, in the framework of economic development policies, with special emphasis on consumer protection, I will be committed to the further develop the quality infrastructure, improve services and increase cooperation between relevant institutions. Completing the legislation and harmonizing it with the EU legislation, by strengthening the implementation mechanisms, will be one of the objectives of my cabinet ", said Krasniqi.
In honour of this day, Minister Krasniqi along with the cabinet and staff of the Accreditation Directorate have visited the Kosovo Food and Veterinary Agency, where they were hosted by the Chief of this institution, Valdet Gjinovci.
In this agency, to see the work closely, Minister Krasniqi also visited the laboratories, expressing his pride in the work done in this institution.
"Today we had the pleasure to visit the Food and Veterinary Agency, on the occasion of marking the World Accreditation Day, on which occasion we have visited the food laboratory, where we met the staff and got informed about the work and achievements of this laboratory. Indeed, today is a great day, a day that it is directly related to the health of citizens. We know the difficulties that existed in the past, but from what we saw today from the laboratories, I feel very proud and comfortable with the fact that today to the citizens of Kosovo are offered a food with an extraordinary quality, which is provided by the laboratory that I visited. We, as the Ministry of Trade in the future, will have a special focus on those shortcomings in the legal infrastructure and will harmonize all the laws in harmony with the European Union. In terms of laboratory equipment, in the future we will also have other laboratories, and we will cooperate and provide better quality services, in this case also in terms of the food quality. I would like to thank the Chief of KFVA, Mr. Valdet Gjinovci, who received us to mark this day and provided us with information about the work of all laboratories", said Minister Krasniqi.
Whereas, the Chief executive Officer of the KFVA, Valdet Gjinovci, said that they have an inter-institutional cooperation with the Directorate for Accreditation who have continuously supported and helped the Food Agency.
"But above everything, as an institution and the competent authority for food safety at the national level, we stood in front of duty, despite the challenges that we faced. We have achieved the accomplishment of the foreseen aims for providing safe products to the citizens by always taking as a priority the protection of the public health in the whole territory of Kosovo.
With Minister Mr. Krasniqi we have also cooperated in the past and KFVA has been always supported. With the Directory of Accreditation, we are in the continuous contact at any time, always in fulfilling the required standards” said Gjinovci.
Also, the Director of the Accreditation Directorate, Gentiana Islamaj said that even in this time of pandemic, when the supply chains in the food industry are under pressure, Accreditation has helped to maintain the integrity and sustainability of food testing laboratories, thus giving buyer confidence in how food is produced and distributed.
"Therefore, the General Directorate of Accreditation, to ensure that this trust is maintained during the current situation Covid-19, has continued to carry out accreditation activities, always respecting the rules of social distancing and security measures for both internal staff and even for its customers. Thanks to this commitment of the General Directorate of Accreditation, in addition to the KFVA Food Laboratory, in the Republic of Kosovo are accredited 11 other testing laboratories for food products which issue certificates on the quality of food products, "said Islamaj.
Otherwise, World Accreditation Day is a global initiative aimed at promoting the value of accreditation. This year, the theme selected to mark the World Accreditation Day is "Accreditation: Improving Food Safety", so it has been decided that this day will be marked together with the Food and Veterinary Agency, whose laboratories are accredited by the General Directorate for Accreditation of Kosovo, since 2014 and re-accredited in 2018.
