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The Technical Assistance Program to Support the Armenian Food Safety System Project, sponsored by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), is a four-year collaborative technical assistance effort between the LSU Agricultural Center, its US partner, Southern University, its Ukrainian partner, the International Institute for Food Safety and Quality (IIFSQ), and CARD. This project is one of the three main components of the new Sanitary & Phyto-Sanitary Project conducted by USDA in Armenia. The other two components of the SPS Project include Animal Health and Plant Health. The overall goal of the project is to establish an effective Armenian food safety program bolstering the economy through increased demand and sale of food products within Armenia, regionally and for export, and to provide a safe and reliable food supply for the populace.
Four objectives have been set forth to reach this goal:
- Provide basic food safety industry/regulatory training
- Strengthen in-country regulatory compliance
- Initiate dissemination of science-based food safety information to the food processing industry and regulatory agencies
- Establish sustainable food safety assistance
Some of the activities include:
- Technical Training and Assistance (TTA) to assist food processors develop and maintain HACCP plan
- Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) and Basic Sanitation Training
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- Government officials, universities, NGOs, meat processors, dairy processors, fish industry, fruit and vegetable processors
- ServSafe Training for food service establishments
- Better Process Control School (BPCS) for Low Acid Canned Foods Training
- Grade A Pasteurized Milk Ordinance
- Farmer-level food safety training
- Consumer Awareness Campaign
- Food Safety Roundtable discussions
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- Dairy Industry Issues
- Food Service Industry Issues
- Food Testing Laboratories
Through the program Armenian food industry stakeholders learn the basic and essential components of food safety as well as internationally recognized food safety regulations and requirements. Participating stakeholders use this knowledge to develop HACCP programs in food processing plants, facilitate reform of government food regulatory statutes, support enforcement of new regulations, and promote public awareness of food safety issues for local consumers. To date about 5000 stakeholders were trained on food safety requirements, National Food Safety Concept draft was developed for the Government of Armenia, new Food Safety law adopted in 2006 was reviewed and recommendations made, 22 laboratories were assessed and future development strategies were recommended, baseline study on food safety status 7 stakeholder groups was conducted for 150 private and public entities, development of HACCP program initiated at 8 food processing plants and food safety improvements initiated at 10 farms.
 Project overview 295kb
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