Details added (first version posted on 10:29)
Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28
By Ilhama Isabalayeva – Trend:
Diseases caused and spread by food purposely or unintentionally endanger the future or even the existence of people, Aynur Karimova, head of Department of Communications and Information Technologies of the newly created Food Safety Agency, told in an interview with Trend and Azernews.
She said that food security is a part of the country’s national security.
The health and well-being of the country’s population and the healthy growth of future generations are directly dependent on food security, Karimova noted.
Harmful food is even more dangerous than armed attacks, she added.
“Providing food security for the health of our population, our people today is one of the main tasks for us,” the department head said.
Meanwhile, compliance with local products, packaging, transport, sanitation and hygiene must be ensured, according to Karimova.
She mentioned that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on November 13, 2017 to ensure the activities of the Food Safety Agency.
“Meanwhile, the president signed a decree on the transfer of state property, consisting of laboratories, administrative buildings and logistics under the property of the Ministry of Economics, Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Healthcare to the property of the Food Safety Agency. All these actions allow us to begin to work with greater readiness,” she said.
“Moreover, we are studying international experience in the field of food safety, and the working mechanism of similar organizations in a number of countries,” she noted.
Karimova noted that the Food Safety Agency will oversee the food safety at all stages of the food supply chain in the country and will deal with consumers’ rights protection.
“Protection of consumer rights will focus on providing them with healthy food,” she added. “Our mission is to work closely with all the participants of the food supply chain.”
“A farmer, an importer of the final product, a dealer or a supplier - everyone should understand that his task is to provide people with healthy and safe food. We want our control mechanism to support local producers,” she added.
Implementation of standards and fulfillment of food safety requirements should increase the sales of local producers’ products across the country and increase their market share, and competitiveness of exported products, Karimova added.
Speaking of the legislative and legal acts, aimed at achieving food security in the country, Karimova stressed that there are numerous legislative acts, standards, sanitary and hygienic norms related to the safety of food products in Azerbaijan.
“There is a legal framework in the country that prohibits the production and sale of products with GMOs. Standards for halal products and standards for various food products have been approved. At present, the regulatory and technical base of the Food Safety Agency is under development,” she noted.
The head of the department highlighted that a food safety project is currently being developed, and the proposals on a number of bills have been submitted to the Azerbaijani Parliament.
She said that a number of proposals have been prepared to the laws of the Republic of Azerbaijan “On Food Products”, “On Standardization”, “On Sanitary and Epidemiological Well-Being”, “On Phytosanitary Control”, On Veterinary Medicine”.
Azerbaijan’s Food Security Institute, which will be created under the Food Security Agency under a presidential decree, will carry out scientific research on food safety, risk assessment based on scientific principles, prepare draft normative-technical acts in the field of food safety, voluntary use of international standards on food safety by manufacturers of food products, research services on food safety indicators, she said.
There are similar institutions in European countries, the U.S., and Australia. These institutions play a very important role in the conduct of scientific research, especially in the field of food safety.
“We are sure that we will be able to create such institution in Azerbaijan,” Karimova concluded.