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[devil]

Be very careful where you buy frozen food, whether it be from a village or a a very large supermarket or anything in between. Very few of them respect the need for keeping the food at -18°C or colder, which is an international standard. The danger of buying frozen food which, at any time in its transport, storage or display, has warmed up to -12°C or warmer is very real.

In one case, I was in a large supermarket/"mall" in Strovolos when I found some "frozen" fish which was actually soft and had droplets of liquid water on the packets - and it was already approaching the "use-by" date into the bargain; it had just been placed in a freezer where, no doubt, it would have been re-frozen in an hour or two.

My advice is to boycott the freezers of any shop which does not respect the basic rules of commercial frozen food:
1. do not buy anything where the freezers do not have thermometers
2. do not buy anything where the thermometers show any temperature warmer than, preferably, -18°C or -15°C at the outside
3. if you take a packet of frozen peas, small shrimps or anything similar, make sure that the contents are not in a solid block of ice: if so, do not buy there. Note that the peas etc. can stick together under the pressure of other packets on top, but they should become free again by flexing the bag.

I haven't found any large supermarkets that rigorously respect all these rules but the best ones that I have found are Chris Cash and Carry, Larnaca and the large Alphamega at Engomi. With care, most of the produce in these two is acceptable (****), although I have never found a ***** supermarket (I have found no-stars and many * or ** ones, where I would never buy frozen food of any type). Note that the reason they do not respect the cold chain to the letter is economic: to keep a freezer at -18°C uses twice the electricity than at -12°C.

Does anyone know of any EU directives reegarding the commerce of frozen food?

[erolz]

Try a google on "EU directives frozen food"

here are some results that may be of relevance.

http://www.iifiir.org/2enarticles_bull02_4.pdf

http://europa.eu.int/smartapi/cgi/sga_d ... 2&nu_doc=1

http://europa.eu.int/smartapi/cgi/sga_d ... 2&nu_doc=2

Hope that helps

[devil]

Thanks, interesting!