A European Union (EU) team will visit the country in November mainly to scrutinise whether the country's exportable produce, especially fish, match their required standards, officials said.
The EU-FVO (Food and Veterinary Office) audit team will look into residues of food of animal origin mainly to inspect whether there are any chemical substances in fish exported to the 27 nations of the EU.
The team is expected to visit the country from November 05 to 16, said the officials.
Experts say any deviation from the standards could prompt the team to submit a bad report, inviting a possible ban on Bangladeshi shrimps in the EU countries.
"The fate of the fish export to the EU largely depends on the visit of the team, which will carry out on-the-spot inspection to see the quality and standards of the food item from the very beginning of the supply chain," an official of the Department of Fisheries (DoF) said.
The delegation is expected to inspect the present situation of residue control in live animals and animal products and the control mechanism for veterinary medicinal products, measures seen as key requirements for export of shrimps to the EU, sources said.
The team will also look into the process of implementation of public health and residue control measures in aquaculture products at every level to be sure that no health-hazard agents or drugs enter the shrimps' bodies, they added.
Asked, Kazi Belayet Hossain, vice president of Bangladesh Frozen Food Exporters Association (BFFEA), said, "The delegation will mainly inspect whether we follow and implement the EU guidelines or not during the processing of the exportable fish."
The last time an EU-FVO audit team visited the country was in April 2015, fisheries ministry officials said.
Last week, the DoF asked the BFFEA to take necessary measures in all fish processing factories of its members ahead of the EU team's visit, its officials said.
It has prescribed a 21-point recommendation for BFFEA-listed fish farms and processing plants to comply with.
The department also asked them to submit the progress report in this regard within a week.
The factories are also instructed to strictly maintain the required standards in line with EU directives and the rules of the country, the officials said.
The other directives included ensuring traceability from farm to processing plants and keep records of shrimp collection from certified service centre, landing centre or depots.
The recommendations also included preserving records and documents detailing the corrective measures if any company is listed under 'rapid alert system' of the EU since 2015 and whether any consignment has been rejected.
According to the industry sources, the country's 130 shrimp processing plants and tens of thousands of farms employ over one million people.
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