Georgia introduces new food safety regulations
By Ana Robakidze
Tuesday, August 4
Georgia is introducing additional food quality regulations. According to the new regulations, all dairy products made from animal byproducts have to be labeled accordingly giving a clear message to the customers. Also, the manufacturer has the right to label only animal milk products as sour cream, cottage cheese, butter, yogurt and milk. In the case products have vegetable fats in it, it should be clearly stated on the packaging.
According to the Georgian National Food Agency, the new safety regulations were introduced in order to strengthen food safety in the country and all companies manufacturing dairy products are requested to meet the standards otherwise they will have to pay large fines or even be banned from Georgian market.
The Minister of Agriculture, Otar Danelia, and the head of the Food Safety Agency, Zaza Dolidze, personally checked the dairy products in Georgian supermarket to make sure manufacturers are following the new regulations. According to Danelia they managed to reveal some violations of incorrect labelling.
“Regrettably, it seems that not all manufacturers care about their customers. I would like to address the citizens and ask them to carefully check labels on products,” Danelia told media after visiting several large supermarkets in Tbilisi. He also said that the new regulations have not affected the product prices.
Because of the revealed violations, the supermarkets will be fined because they did not remove the wrongly labeled products from their shelves.
