According with relevant press release of the Hellenic Food Authority:

GENERALLY:

• Buy from official and controlled parts of the market.
• Buy meat which is put in refrigerators or in refrigerated cases and not that which is outside of the refrigerator and is exposed to dust and bugs.
• Give great attention to the sanitary conditions of the personnel and to the cleanliness of the equipment and of the place where you buy foods.
• Check carefully of the product labeling.
• Buy quantities based on the real needs of your family.
• Conduct market research and compare prices always according to the offered quality.

WHAT YOU SHOULD CHECK DURING YOUR BUYS

Supply of lambs, plucks, guts and generally of meat.

Quality Labels:

• For all the indigenous lambs and for those coming from Community countries, the quality label is of color turquoise and is round.
• The Greek lambs also have turquoise parallelogram quality label with the indication “HELLAS”.
• The introduced lambs from third countries, Greek or not slaughtering, have labels of color brown, that is the quality label (round) and rectangle label on which is written the name of the third country.
• Every carcass obligatory must have labels on both shoulders and on both external sides of the thighs.
• The entrails, the liver, the lungs, the heart and the kidneys must not have nodules and bladders. If you choose frozen, make sure that are not defrosted.
• The guts for the traditional kokoretsi and the magiritsa (Greek Easter soup), should not present alterations in the color and should not be exposed to the environment, to dust and insects. Make sure you clean them very carefully.
• In case of defrosted pluck supply, great attention must be given to the written date of freezing and to the expiring date of the product.

In no case the consumers should buy defrosted guts.

Supply of Dairy Products:

• The cheese must be made only in cheese dairy that operates legally. You should never buy “fresh cheese” from producers that cheese make on their own, because the hygienic conditions of their production are unknown and possibly NOT correct.
• The cheese must have identification sign (oval label) with the initials of the country of production and the approval number of the manufacturer. Furthermore, on the packaging should have the date of production, of packaging, the pick-up date etc.
• The cheese fletching must be made during the customers’ presence. Ask to see the label of the initial packaging.

Supply of Eggs:

• All eggs must have on their shell the distinguishing number of producer written with readable letters.
• The code number of the candling centre.
• The quality and weight category.
• The date of minimum durability (28 days the highest, after the date of spawn)
• The freshness and the suitability of the egg is confirmed by the check of the expiring date and the correct indications on their packaging, such as the date of packaging or candling.
• The color of the shell is connected to the poultry breed and has no connection with its quality.
• Avoid buying eggs with badly soiled, cracked and non normal shell.
• Avoid consuming eggs with speckles of blood, with curdled egg white, colored, and mixed with the yolk as well as with unpleasant smell.
• Do not wash the eggs and maintain them in a cool pace.

Chocolate eggs:

For the buy of chocolate eggs that are given mainly to children, the consumers must be aware that is also about food, for which the general rules of hygiene are applied for the maintenance, exposure and disposal by eponym parts of  food sale.

Great attention should be given by the parents to the content of the eggs, which is toys of small dimensions that can cause drowning or self injury to young children, as well as to the obligatory label of composition (milk chocolate, couverture chocolate etc.) and to the pick-up date.

Egg dyes:

The egg dyes that are used today are the allowed ones from the Foodstuffs and Drinks Code, so there is no problem in their consumption if a small amount of the dye enters to the internal of the egg.