Food control and geneticallymodified produce

Prof. Paata Koguashvili, Demur Bakhtadze, Murman Togonidze

Presently, because of the situation existing on our consumer market, a consumer is practically unprotected, and, correspondingly, there is a big risk that the purchased goods may be unsafe for health.

There are cases of mass poisoning by food products. In the present state of affairs, the functions and competence of the controlling bodies are often not determined, which causes parallelism and certain irresponsibility in their activities. And it is customers that suffer from incompetent and ineffective activities of the above-mentioned bodies.
Protection of the goods market against the produce that is unsafe for human health (both in food and non-food products control sphere) requires clear determination of the controlling bodies’ functions at the legislative level. It is necessary to determine the sphere of competence of each department and how it will implement its controlling functions. In any case, the priority should be given to measures aimed at securing safety of food products.
International experience in the sphere of goods’ safety control should be taken into account as well. The developed countries pay much attention to solving the mentioned problem, and they have created solid national systems for this purpose. Besides, as the economy develops, there increases understanding of entrepreneurs that they should take into account the interests of consumers. The agreement “on cooperation and partnership” existing between Georgia and the European Union envisages making Georgia’s and the EU’s legislation on protection of consumers’ rights more uniform as well as harmonization of consumer protection systems.
Taking into account the EU’s experience, a single body responsible for safety of food products should be created in Georgia.
Creation of this kind of interdepartmental service is recommended by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) within the framework of the so called FIVIMS (Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Mapping System).
As to control over other consumer goods, it is desirable that a clear determination of functions and competence of various controlling bodies should take place, which will secure creation and functioning of a full-fledged and effective system of consumers protection.