News
Safe food for a healthy future! June 7 commemorates the World Food Safety Day
On June 7, the World Food Safety Day was commemorated, established by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2019 and aims at fostering food safety risks prevention and management. In an incumbent year, the WHO has set the following theme – “Safe food for a healthy future”. As an effort to commemorate the World Food Safety Day, the National Food Agency under the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia has organized an annual report presentation for the representatives of international and non-governmental organizations.The event was attended by the Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia, Mr Levan Davitashvili, who stressed out on achievements and drawbacks. “Without an exaggeration, we can state that the Ministry has been undisputedly contributing to food safety; our consistent efforts have harvested significant achievements. Of course, challenges remain. Nevertheless, we shall stress out that food safety is not only the Government’s responsibility, but it shall be complemented by each and every entrepreneur, as well as relevant associations. Better results can only be harvested through unified efforts” – Minister Davitashvili stated.
In the course of the event, it has been stressed out that the National Food Agency actively cooperates with international organizations, cultivates and scrutinizes their standards. During the period of 2015 – 2020, a total number of 146 legislative acts have been harmonized with food safety, veterinary and plants protection to the European Union’s legislation, in frames of the DCFTA.
During an incumbent year, 10, 650 state oversight has been carried out with various business operators (inspection, verification of documents, oversight), which has identified 888 administrative violations. Within the monitoring effort – 656 samples have been collected (study on animal and non-animal food products is carried out at different parameters; including – variety, limited substances, hard metals, pesticides, waste, trans fat, genetically modified bodies, salmonella and listeria).
For animal health protection and epi-zoonotic trust, the Agency has conducted 1, 964, 587 veterinary manipulations, which has identified 184, 774 large and small livestock; 327, 453 large and small livestock have been processed against external parasites during seasonal rotation.
For the sake of ensuring farmers’ rights protection, veterinary and plant protection means’ control has been enacted. Moreover, actions for plant protection, including fighting the armored stink bug are underway.