"Bread with arsenic"/ Muçollari clashes with the representative of the AKU

2026-02-17 10:42:00, Aktualitet CNA

"Bread with arsenic"/ Muçollari clashes with the representative

Democratic Party leadership member Grigels Muçollari today accused the National Food Authority (AKU) of delay and lack of coordination in the case of arsenic-contaminated bread, emphasizing that citizens remain unprotected.

Invited to the show "Kafe Shqeto", Muçollari stated that the information on the contamination did not come from direct controls by the AKU, but from the product's parent company, which notified the institution about the problem.

He criticized the delay in informing the public and seizing the goods, noting that citizens only received the notification after several weeks.

For her part, the representative of the AKU, Polikseni Drazho, from the Scientific Sector, requested verification of the analyses and emphasized that sufficient evidence has not been published to confirm the risk to consumers.

Muçollari also called for improved response systems, more transparent analysis, and stricter supervision of companies, calling the case a clear example of deficiencies in food safety in the country.

Debate on the show

P. Drazho: Bread with arsenic? Excuse me, I mean logically where did the bread get the arsenic?

G. Mucollari: This is an investigation by a television station (not so oppositional), to be honest.

P Drazho: No, no, I'm not talking about opposition or non-opposition. I completely agree. Logically, arsenic in bread...

G. Mucollari: Let's not get into arsenic now. We are talking about an investigation of a program that talks about problems, that is, in the five tests it has received, in five bakeries there are deep problems in relation to quality.

P. Drazho: But where are the analyses that have not been made available to us for us to verify?

G Muçollari: You should have done these analyses earlier to prevent this from happening!

P. Drazho Where is the evidence? Where is the evidence that this bread has resulted in this problem?

P. Drazho: Now we are saying this, that the product is taken and analyzed. But the cases of the presence of arsenic in bread or in cereals, because bread comes from cereals, are very rare. They may even be non-existent, because where did you get it?

G. Mucollari: You know, what's interesting is that sometimes it impresses me and I would like to see honest employees, but at the same time, we shouldn't take on the responsibility of protecting the defenseless.

G Muçollari: I had received the information from the company network, which means the company itself is responsible for announcing that I am blocking this and whoever has this product must remove it.

And at the same time, theoretically the NFA should have reported it as a case because the company itself had notified the NFA.

That is, it was not the NFA that caught the case, but the company had told the NFA that look, this case has happened, the parent company has notified me, there is this problem.

Regarding the meat, it took the AKU several weeks to issue the notice so that citizens would not consume those who had bought it, but in the meantime it took another three weeks to go and seize the goods, after the company's strong insistence and the company's accountability. Which means that here we are in the hands of fate."/ CNA