The Agriculture and Food Ministry, the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency (BFSA), and the Interior Ministry are launching a joint campaign called Clean Food. The campaign has no set end date and will be particularly intensive around Easter and St George’s Day, continuing beyond those dates, caretaker Agriculture and Food Minister Ivan Hristanov announced at a briefing on Wednesday.

Hristanov said, the goal is to demonstrate that the state is a guarantor of food safety and to neutralize any potential for the spread of disease among Bulgarian livestock.

“We have uncovered a large-scale scheme involving the smuggling, distribution, and jointing of meat. We believe this was the main cause of the pox disease outbreak among small ruminants last year. This raises the question of what we are eating,” Hristanov added.

Information regarding the illegal animal imports from Romania into Bulgaria, the discovery of an illegal slaughterhouse in the Ihtiman area, and locations where the remains of slaughtered animals were dumped was presented on site a few days ago by Hristanov and BFSA Executive Director Angel Mavrovski.