Food Agency fines, suspends production at store chain after 8 poisoned with meat

The National Food Agency on Thursday announced it had suspended the production process for ready-to-eat products at Nikora Trade, a part of the Nikora Holding that runs a number of supermarkets and meat production facilities across the country. 

The Agency said the ruling had been made after it received two reports, from the National Centre for Disease Control and Public Health and the Tbilisi Municipal Centre for Epidemiological Monitoring and Infectious Disease Control, about food poisoning of eight people with salmonellosis. 

An inquiry revealed the poisonings to have followed purchases of Chicken Kyiv fillet at the chain, with 20 kg of chicken fillet contaminated with the pathogen, 22 kg of Chicken Kyiv meat and 100 kg of "various types of food" seized from the chain. 

The body said it had issued fines to Nikora Trade and added the suspended facilities would not be allowed to resume work until the inconsistencies were eliminated.

Nikora Trade on Friday confirmed poisoning of “several people” with products purchased at their supermarkets but blamed the supplier company Geo Distribution that provided the fillet used in the products in question.

The National Food Agency said the supplier company would also be inspected.