The two main registered types of poisoning found in nutrition
products in Armenia are botulism and fungus poisoning. Marieta
Basilisyan, vice director of the hygienic/epidemic department of the
Ministry of Health, informed “168 hours” weekly about the above
mentioned. According to Marieta, the cases of poisoning have increased
this year in comparison with last year. Until September 1 of 2004,
there have been 17 cases of botulism with 39 suffering and 4 dead. The
same time last year there were 13 cases of people suffering and 3 cases
of death. The reason for getting sick is the use of home made and not
sterilized canned foods, especially cucumber, tomatoes, pepper,
eggplant, lilies and the marinades and caviars of other vegetables.
There are 10 people suffering from fungus poisoning and one of them is
under the age of 14. In 2003, 12 people have been poisoned from fungus.
The reason is the use of unknown fungus in food products. There have
been no records of deaths from fungus poisoning. The experimental
laboratory for nutritional products and quality supervision has been
established in the Yerevan State University’s Biology Department for
three years now.
Through the funding provided by the marketing aid program of the United
States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the laboratory’s mission is to
train professionals in the field of nutritional food production. It is
thanks to the future professionals, who are currently students or PHD
students,that until today the laboratory has done some surprising
studies. The cheeses, wines, ice cream, other nutritional
products, as well as water, have gone through microbiological and
physical/chemical experiments in Armenia’s different regions and the
capital. The studies shown have drawn the attention of the laboratory
workers. The thing is that the majority of the researched products do
not correspond to international standards that are announced
bombastically but in reality they are not maintainted. In addition, the
food is produced for outlooks on export which is highly dangerous even
for the producer. Foreign countries severely punish the producers with
a fake certificate of quality. In our case, the ISO 9000, ASTM and
other standardized food is polluted with all kinds of bacteria.
As a result of the recent studies by the laboratory, we get the
following: 13 of the 20 samples of cheese sold at the stores in
Yerevan’s Central and Malatia communities are filled with intestinal
germs and the quantity of salt in the cheese is 9-11% when the
standardized amount of salt in Armenia must not exceed the 5% limit.
This percentage of salt is not just due to the fact that we Armenians
like to eat salty food or that we respect the “cheese marinated in
salt”. But salt is known for having bacteria in it and the present-day
producers use that to successfully avoid the existing problems.
Cauliform (intestinal bacteria group) bacteria and its produced toxins
can cause disbacteriose, in other words, intestinal system disorder of
the bacteria environment. That, in turn, reduces the organism’s
immunity and increases the chance of contracting other diseases.
Bacteria and the poisonous substances it produces make a negative
impact on the organism’s central nervous system. Today, the strongest
poison is said to be botulin. The clostridium produced by that poison
is found in the half-sterilized canned foods. Certain toxins can even
become a reason for serious illnesses.
By the request of the American University and the German embassy, the
laboratory has also conducted studies on drinking water, water of
swimming pools, fountains as well as Sevan Lake. The 2 month long
studies conducted in Yerevan showed that out of all the 60 samples of
water from different districts, the safest drinking water was that of
the Arabkir district. The Central district’s water is second place.
This is explained by the fact that the water in those districts has a
high level of chlorine in it, shall we say, “filled with chlorine”. As
for the pureness of the swimming pool water and Sevan Lake, they are
polluted according to European standards but nobody can say for sure if
whether or not that water is not dangerous because there is no standard
in Armenia.
The results of the studies of wine depend on the quality standards of
experiments such as fermentization, presence of organic acids and
vitamins, transparency, any increase in the substances produced, etc.
The elder scientific worker at the laboratory Karine Grigoryan states
that in order to secure the safety of nutritional products, it is
necessary to follow up on the correct form of organizing production,
which is currently not being done. If there is one error in the
production chain, then that will reflect upon the final product’s
quality and use. “It is necessary to check everything-starting from the
raw material ending with the final product. Let’s not forget to mention
the land where the grass is grown, with which the cow eats and gives
milk. For all of this, what we need is new equipment and professionals.
What was used ten years ago does not satisfy the nutritional and
microbiological demands.” Besides that, Mrs. Grigoryan added that many
people do not believe me or look at it indifferently. She gave a great
example of teamwork. She brought up the fact that in Russia, there is a
self-governing system, where the producer, the supervising laboratory
and the organization protecting the rights of the consumer work
together to fight against bioterrorism and provide the best product.