Presided over by Deputy Prime Minister, Azim Ibrohim, a meeting of the Food Safety Coordinating Council took place in Dushanbe yesterday to review the results of the past year’s results, a source in the Tajik government told Asia-Plus in an interview.
25 cases of food poisoning were registered in Tajikistan last year. All those cases were reportedly caused by homemade canned foods. In 19 cases, 49 people contracted botulism and six of them died.
In 2016, about 317 tons of expired food products worth more than 5.2 million somoni, including 90 tons of meat products, 3.8 tons of dairy products and 105 tons of fruits and vegetables that did not meet the country’s standards of quality, were removed from shelves in Tajikistan.
The meeting adopted the plan of work for 2017. The deputy prime minister charged relevant bodies to tighten control over food products in the country, the source said.
The first meeting of the Food Safety Coordinating Council took place on November 12, 2014. The Council was set up to monitor and assess safety of food products and provide expertise support for making specific decisions as well as work out food safety legislation.
The Food Safety Coordinating Council members include representatives of relevant ministries and agencies authorized to ensure food safety, researchers and experts.
The Council has the right to work out, endorse and implement joint events on providing control over safety of food products, considering disputable issues that occurred during control over safety of food products and implementing other tasks.

