Tajikistan Regulatory Departments
The main governmental body that plays a role in setting standards and controlling quality for all types of products entering Tajikistan or produced in the country is the Agency on Standardization, Metrology, Certification and Trade Inspection of Tajikistan, also known as Tojikstandard. Tojikstandard is the successor organization to Gosstandard from the Soviet era. As such all food and non-food product standards are still consistent with those in other countries of the former Soviet Union, unless they have been changed since Tajikistan gained its independence in 1991. Tojikstandard operates a laboratory for the testing of various products. It plays a key role in enforcing the salt iodization law including centralized supply of potassium iodate to salt producers.
Tojikstandard is also authorized to do HACCP certification of firms in Tajikistan. So far 40 Tajik enterprises have received such certification but no flour mills yet.
The Sanitary and Epidemiology Service (SES) under the Ministry of Health enforces food safety standards at food processing plants and food service enterprises. It also has a laboratory that is equipped with a spectrophotometer that could be used for measuring iron content of flour among other things. During the flour fortification project that ran from 2002-2007 SES personnel were given much training.
As of mid-2014 USAID was considering supporting a project to reintroduce flour fortification at a certain number of Tajikistan mills.
The Food Department (“Pisheprom”) under the Ministry of Industry registers and monitors production levels of all food processing enterprises. There is an Institute of Nutrition under the Food Department that has some capacity to do quality testing of food. It has been active in distribution of salt iodization test kits to households with support from UNICEF.
The Customs Administration under the Ministry of Finance will be charged with implementation of new regulations surrounding Tajikistan’s accession to the Word WTO in 2013.
In a project supported by FAO and the Turkish government through a $300,000 grant, the Ministry of Agriculture has undertaken a project develop a set of hygiene manuals for a number of food industry sectors, following HACCP principles.
For more information on regulatory departments and quality control laboratories’ contact details, please see the following links: 4.3 Tajikistan Laboratory and Quality Testing Company Contact List
