At least 69 cases of food poisoning were registered in Kyrgyzstan for nine months of 2022. About 92 percent of them are associated with catering, trade and food industry facilities. The Deputy Minister of Health, Chief State Sanitary Doctor of the Kyrgyz Republic, Bubuzhan Arykbayeva, announced at a press conference.
According to her, during the specified period, 1,952 objects were checked, protocols were drawn up for 1,670 objects on the identified violations. Fines were imposed for 4,503 million soms.
She gave statistics for comparison: in 2018, there were 126 food poisonings with 605 victims, in 2019 — 185 poisonings with 558 victims. During the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, the figure dropped to 90 cases of poisoning with 267 victims.
«Earlier, 50-70 percent of food poisonings were associated with public catering facilities, and now it is up to 92 percent. This is a very large figure,» Bubuzhan Arykbayeva said.
The Deputy Minister believes that the fines alone will not help achieve high efficiency of inspections. The surprise principle is needed, as before.
She noted that criticism of the sanitary and epidemiological service appeared on social media. «But this service has a lot of directions, and check of food objects is just one of them. Therefore, criticism of the entire service is offensive. Let me remind you that there was a moratorium on all types of inspections in the country for 3.5 years, control was carried out only in terms of compliance with the regime for the prevention of COVID-19,» the Deputy Minister added.
