Ohrid and Struga: Banned Chicken Gizzards Destroyed

North Macedonia’s Food and Veterinary Agency (AHV) said on Saturday, October 17, that its inspectors had seized and destroyed 1,000 kilograms of chicken gizzards in butcher shops in Ohrid and Struga, two towns on Lake Ohrid that are also visited by tourists from Serbia. Imports and use of the product in human food have been banned in the country since 2024.

What inspectors found in the butcher shops

According to the agency’s statement, the inspections were extraordinary and part of stepped-up action against the illegal trade in this kind of food. Besides the gizzards themselves, 55 kilograms of processed meat products made with them were destroyed.

Misdemeanor measures were taken against two butcher shops that ignored the ban. The names of the butchers and the size of the fines were not released.

Why are chicken gizzards banned?

The ban covers imports and use of chicken gizzards in human food, including their use in processed meat. The agency said in its statement: “In July 2024, the Agency issued a decision banning the import and use of chicken gizzards” (the quote is translated from Macedonian).

The decision followed a risk analysis of using the muscular part of poultry gizzards in food, which pointed to possible contamination with pathogenic bacteria and viruses and to the presence of toxins. Earlier inspections, AHV says, also uncovered abuses and consumer deception by several meat producers. So the 2024 decision rested not only on an assessment of danger but on what inspectors had found on the market.

Sources differ on exactly when the ban began. The AHV statement and the Macedonian outlets OhridNews and TVM give July 2024, while N1 says the agency introduced the ban on August 1, 2024. As far as the statement has been reported, it does not give an exact day.

What the 2026 inspection figures show

Alongside this seizure, the agency released its tally for the first eight months of the year. AHV director Oliver Milanov presented it on October 16 at an event marking World Food Day, organized by the municipality of Kisela Voda, the agency and the Institute for Public Health, OhridNews reports. From January to August 2026, 74,838 inspections were carried out in the domestic market and on food imports.

In that period:

• 69,776 kilograms of unsafe food were destroyed
• imports of 21,105 kilograms of food of non-animal origin were banned
• shipments of food of animal origin totaling 122,602 kilograms were returned to their countries of origin
• the Consumer Protection Department received more than a thousand requests from companies and individuals for inspection, mostly about health protection and animal welfare

Milanov said: “Food safety is a shared responsibility” (translated from Macedonian). He added that it takes consistent inspections, compliance with legal obligations and coordination among the institutions responsible for consumer protection. The agency’s work, he explained, is not limited to uncovering irregularities but includes prevention, education and cooperation with producers and food businesses. Inspections are carried out in the domestic market and at import, so that risks to human health are detected in time. In Milanov’s assessment, citizens of North Macedonia eat safe food.

Penalties for negligent businesses

The agency director admitted that penalties for negligent businesses are low. Amendments to the law now being prepared would double them, Milanov said, and no adoption date was given.

Until then, the agency has already announced what stays in place: continued stepped-up inspections, so that the ban is respected and citizens get safe food, along with legal changes that would double the fines. For the first eight months of the year the agency has 74,838 completed inspections, and the Ohrid and Struga seizure arrives as a new entry in that series.