Ministerial Decree No. 158 validating the Regulation on state hygienic registration of foodstuffs and keeping state registry

Approved with Decision 158 dated 6 October 2007 by the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Azerbaijan PROCEDURES for State Hygiene Registration of Food Products and Conduct of State Registry 1. General provisions 1.1. These procedures have been prepared pursuant to third paragraph, 2nd Article of the Decree 969 dated 23 October 2003 by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan on “Additional Measures with respect to application of the Republic of Azerbaijan on “Food Products” and determine the principles of state hygiene registration of food products imported to the Republic, as well as produced domestically, and conduct their state registry. 1.2. It is mandatory for legal and physical persons engaged in production, sale and import of food products to adhere to these procedures. 1.3. The hygiene certificate given for food products once they have passed state hygiene registration is a document of approval given by state sanitary control bodies for production, sale and import of food products meeting effective sanitary norms and rules in the Republic of Azerbaijan and official document for ensuring safety of products for human health within framework of certain conditions. 2. State hygiene registration of food products 2.1. The following documents should be presented by legal and physical persons in order for food products to pass state hygiene registration: 2.1.1. application for state hygiene registration of food products; the application shall reflect the following: for legal persons – name, legal address; for physical persons – name, patronymic, last name, information confirming the identity, copy of a permission document for food products required to be licensed for production and import; 2.1.2. for production of local products: an act of examination by territorial state sanitary control bodies regarding the conformity of producing enterprise to sanitary norms and procedures; 2.1.3. for imported products: copy of a contract (agreement); translation of a relevant certificate confirmed by a notary characterizing origin, quality and safety of a food product given by an authoritative body of a producer country; 2.1.4. sample product taken by sanitary-epidemiological service specialists; 2.1.5. receipt confirming the service fee for conducting expertise according to chemical, biological, toxicological and radiological indicators of food products. 2.2. State hygiene registration of produced products in the Republics is conducted based on normative documents determining the requirements to their production and use; registration of foreign products shall be conducted based on investigation of relevant certificates given by authoritative bodies of a country sending the product, as well as, based on results of chemical, biological, toxicological and radiological examinations necessary for studying the safety of fee-based products. 2.3. In case when norms regarding safety of food products in concluded international agreements are not indicated, the imported products shall be referred to effective sanitary norms and procedures and hygiene normatives in the Republic of Azerbaijan. 2.4. Hygiene assessment of a product shall be conducted in accordance with results of examinations and expertise conducted in accredited laboratories of state sanitary control bodies or other organizations. 2.5. The review period of documents presented for state hygiene registration of food products shall be fixed for 10 days. 2.6. When documents specified in the Article 2.1. of these procedures have not been submitted, and results of conducted expertise have not met effective sanitary norms and procedures, as well as, in the cases determined with the law of the Republic of Azerbaijan “On Food Products”, the products shall not pass state hygiene registration and an applicant shall be informed accordingly. When there is no justification for refusal of state hygiene registration of food products, those products shall pass the state hygiene registration. 3. Conduct of registry of food products which have passed state hygiene registration 3.1. State registry of food products which have passed state hygiene registration shall be conducted on hard and protected electronic carriers. When scripts on hard copies and electronic carriers of registries do not conform one another, the information on a hard copy shall prevail over. 3.2. The following information shall be included for registration: Serial number; Registration date; Registration number; Information about appellant legal and physical person; Name and address of producing enterprise; Name of a product. 3.3. The products can be removed from the state hygiene registration in the following cases: 3.3.1. when effective sanitary norms and procedures have been violated during the production of food products; when production technologies have been violated, as well as when cases of using provisions not allowing the production of products have been discovered; 3.3.2. when an applicant’s activity has been cancelled by relevant state bodies pursuant to legislation; 3.3.3. when incorrect information in the documents submitted with respect to production of a product has been submitted; 3.3.4. in other cases envisaged in the legislation of the Republic of Azerbaijan. 3.4. The decision adopted regarding the cancellation of hygiene registration shall be conveyed to the person responsible for production or import of a product in the written form within 5 days period.