Attempts to Generate Panic Are Unacceptable: SARM

The State Food Safety Inspection Body (SARM) has addressed the information circulating on social media regarding the wheat imported from Kazakhstan, particularly a statement made by journalist Nairi Khochikyan.

“The Food Safety Inspection Body has clearly fulfilled its duties by sampling wheat batches imported from both the Russian Federation and the Republic of Kazakhstan. Laboratory tests were conducted at the ‘Republican Veterinary and Phytosanitary Laboratory Services Center’ under SARM in three areas:

1. Phytosanitary tests according to the requirements established by the decision No. 318 of the Customs Union Commission dated June 18, 2010, on the ‘Ensuring Plant Quarantine in the Eurasian Economic Union’;
2. Safety indicator tests in accordance with the Technical Regulation No. 015/2011 of the Customs Union on ‘Food Safety’;
3. Quality indicator tests according to the standards of GOST 9353-2016 ‘Wheat: Technical Conditions’.

The results of the tests are as follows: During the phytosanitary tests, no quarantine harmful organisms were detected through entomological, phytopathological, and weed research.

Within the framework of safety indicator tests, toxic elements (heavy metals), pesticides, mycotoxins, and radioactivity were examined. As a result, no deviations from the permissible limits were recorded concerning quality indicators, including mass fraction of protein, amount of glue, humidity, and organoleptic (color, odor) indicators. The sample from the Russian Federation corresponded to 2nd grade wheat, while the sample from the Republic of Kazakhstan corresponded to 3rd grade wheat. This is the reality.

Which international disclosure does the journalist claim that “this Kazakh wheat was grown in an area where nuclear mass tests have been conducted”? What substantiated evidence exists regarding this, remains unknown.

As for what “alpha” toxin is, especially its chemical origin, which is being used to “terrorize” the public, only the writer knows. In the end, publishing pictures of flour boxes with labeling that clearly states, ‘…produced from high-quality wheat,’ and then claiming that its raw material is wheat brought from Kazakhstan in November while failing to publish the production date on the box is clearly a manipulative and condemnable action.

SARM has published the laboratory examination reports. In November, we reported that the train loaded with Kazakh wheat arrived in Armenia, passing through the territories of Kazakhstan, Russia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. According to SARM, the wheat brought from Kazakhstan is not 4th grade as some circles have presented; laboratory tests have confirmed that it is 3rd grade.