YEREVAN, JUNE 6, ARMENPRESS. A positive progress has been registered in the field of food safety in Armenia in the recent years, Head of the Department of Food Safety at the Food Safety Inspectorate Vahe Danielyan said, calling this a result of not only the good job of the Inspectorate, but also the increase in the level of demand of the society.

“Back in 2007 when the State Food Safety and Veterinary Inspectorate was founded, I was working an inspector in Yerevan that time. During the inspection there was not a single store where we didn’t find a large number of expired products. This was connected not only with the bad control, but also with the lack of awareness among the citizens. The culture of paying attention to the expiry date while buying a good didn’t exist among the citizens. But today the picture is completely different. Today we can find unique cases when expired food is sold”, he said.

However, according to him, looking at only the expiry date of the product is not enough as he says attention should be paid also on the whole information existing on the good, which relates to the consumer. The Inspectorate’s aim is to make citizens pay attention to the full text of the mark through respective awareness-raising campaigns.

There is also positive progress in the approaches of economic entities. Vahe Danielyan says this is seen in the reduction of the number of business suspensions. In 2021 the Inspectorate made decisions on suspending the operation of more than 60 economic entities.

“When we detect non-compliance in any economic entity and apply a restriction, we are consistent that they eliminate the shortcomings after which only we allow them to resume their operation”, he said.

By keeping the problems of the field in focus, the Inspectorate will toughen the control and will carry out large-scale awareness-raising campaigns within the public.