Baku:Goshgar Tahmazli, Chairman of Azerbaijan's Food Safety Agency (AQTA), met with Nabil Gangi, Deputy Regional Representative for Europe and Central Asia of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and Nasar Hayat, FAO Representative in Azerbaijan, to discuss ongoing and future cooperative projects.

According to Azerbaijan State News Agency, the meeting centered on evaluating the current cooperation between AQTA and FAO, focusing on the implementation of joint projects and future collaboration under the State Program for 2027-2032 on Ensuring Food Safety in Azerbaijan.

The cooperation areas discussed included the digitalization of food safety control systems, animal identification, the development of traceability systems, strengthening laboratory capacity, establishing control infrastructure at border checkpoints, and implementing the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) system more broadly.

Further discussions highlighted the expansion of Azerbaijan's food consumption database, support for Azerbaijan as the incoming coordinator of the Codex Alimentarius Commission for the European region, and the application of artificial intelligence and Big Data technologies in food safety. They also addressed the exchange of expertise in risk analysis and FAO's support for events organized by the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization (EPPO) in Baku in 2027.