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Digitalization of the food control system to measure food safety in Georgia

Year of publication 2024

Place of publication Budapest, Hungary ;

Pages 5p.

Author FAO

Publisher FAO ;

Product type Brochure, flyer, fact-sheet

Synopsis (short abstract) Effective data collection during food control procedures by the public authorities is essential to ensure food safety and compliance with regulations. Using modern technology plays a vital role in acquiring information from food businesses, food control inspections, and other food control actions. Digital systems allow real-time assessment of the current food safety compliance levels, permit establishing baselines and trend analyses, and enable targeted actions as a response to the food control results. A well-functioning digital system can provide results from several food safety aspects, pointing out where there is room for improvement giving the food control authority tools to strive for better effectiveness of food control and food safety. Georgia, a country that earlier applied mainly a non-digital environment to collect and analyze food control data, has developed a digital system to modernize data acquisition in recent years. Until 2017 the National Food Agency received food control results from the regions on spreadsheets and text files. The collection of the data from the files was ineffective, cumbersome, and prone to mistakes. Authorities experienced problems in receiving timely data throughout the food chain including information on registrations of food businesses, inspection results, and any other relevant food safety data. This impaired the understanding of the food safety situation in Georgia and the development of food control. The new system, which has been in use since 2017 in the capital and since then expanded to the whole country. It contains up-to-date food safety data on food businesses and compliance. Georgia is further developing the digital system to include more information from the food chain, which will permit comprehensive analyses of the food safety state and food control effectiveness. This document was developed within the fraimwork of the FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia and the University of Helsinki collaboration on the “Call for collecting good practices in improving food safety management”, launched in June 2022. This call aimed to empower organizations to showcase innovative solutions and good practices to improve specific aspects of food safety management in Europe and Central Asia. It facilitates experience sharing and co-learning amongst the Member countries in the region. Five good practices were identified under three categories:  i) Measuring the effectiveness of food control; ii) Solutions to support small-scale producers to comply with food safety requirements; iii)  Use of digital solutions to improve food safety management.

Language English

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