Kyrgyzstan needs to establish a system for testing food products for pesticides and chemical elements to prevent unsafe goods from reaching the market. Uran Chekirbaev, head of the Food Security Department at the Ministry of Water Resources, Agriculture, and Processing Industry, said on Birinchi Radio.
According to him, the country also lacks a mechanism to certify food quality and organic status.
«Consumers can judge quality mostly by appearance. For instance, people in Naryn can tell whether meat is good or not, but that shouldn’t be the case. Every product must have official proof of quality,» Uran Chekirbaev explained.
He added that many imported products sold at low prices may require additional safety checks.
«Most products on local markets are sold without systematic quality testing. This issue exists not only in Kyrgyzstan but also in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. In Europe, farmers must undergo a strict quality control process before selling their goods. Our ministry will gradually introduce simplified quality standards among farmers and enforce compliance in markets. In Europe and the US, they check up to 500 parameters, while in Kyrgyzstan we check only up to 24 parameters, depending on the product. Consequently, we cannot check even imported products for all parameters, although we should,» Uran Chekirbaev noted.
He also highlighted the problem of a fragmented laboratory network and the lack of a clear system for testing imported products for GMOs.
