Assessment of the

4.3 SANITARY EPIDEMIOLOGICAL INSPECTION 
The sanitary and epidemiological inspection organization is also a newly established organization (about 
two months prior to this assessment in October 2019), detached from the Ministry of Health (MoH) and 
established as an independent institute in support of the new initiative for the development of fruit and 
vegetables production and export and ALC projects. This organization has the following capacity and 
planned activities: 
• 
28 staff members now, but planned to have 4000 employees/staff for overall hygiene and 
sanitary inspection within the country including supermarkets, wholesale stores, cold storages, 
pack-houses, cold trucks, railways, etc.; 
• 
Will be involved in sampling activities for analytical services to be provided by UZstandards 
and the Ministry of Health; 
• 
Well aware of the Codex and ISO standards and the Central Asia Regional Economic 
Cooperation (CAREC) food safety Programs; 
• 
Has established good contacts and working with the National Codex Contact Point (MoH); 
• 
Support requested to launch its inspection services include inspection and sampling tools, 
transportation for inspectors, and capacity building programs;
• 
Inspection and certification at import/export outlets and ALCs will be provided by the 
Sanitarians under the Ministry of Health. 
 
4.4 INTERNATIONAL INSPECTION & CERTIFICATION BODIES IN UZBEKISTAN 
Cert Certification and Wakefield Inspection Services were interviewed the discussions summarized below.

---

23 | ASSESSMENT OF REGIONAL AGRI-LOGISTICS CENTERS IN UZBEKISTAN USAID.GOV 
• Wakefield Inspection Services, the main inspection service was focused on cotton, but had recently 
shifted to fruit and vegetables. Currently it has limited inspection service and the number of staff 
reduced from 33 to 4.
• The main international certification bodies operating in Uzbekistan include: Cert Certification and TUV 
(major certification body and also provide regular training courses) followed by DQS, SGS, Slovak 
certification, Geek Certification, Intertek, CUC, etc. most of the certification focused on ISO 9001 
Quality Management System (90-95%), ISO 22000 Food Safety Management System (5-10%), and 
GLOBALG.A.P. about 2 or 3 farms; 
• Cert Management also provides training courses on different management systems and for auditors 
(IRCA registered);
• The accreditation body SNAS (Slovak) and TURKAS (Turkey) are also operating in Uzbekistan.
There was limited demand by producers and exporters for international certifications. This demand will 
certainly increase with the development of ALCs and export market to higher value export destination 
with strict demand for quality and food safety requirements.