Uzbekistan adopts founding statute of the Food Safety Committee, detailing its regulatory powers and funding model

25 July 2026

Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 396, signed on 21 July 2026, approves the founding statute of the Food Safety Committee and the statute of its Development Fund. This follows the Committee's establishment under Presidential Decree No. 84 and Presidential Resolution No. 178 of 12 May 2026, and the appointment of Azizbek Urunov as its first chair, both covered in our earlier insight on the food safety reform. Where the May instruments created the Committee and set the reform roadmap, this resolution defines exactly how the Committee is structured, what powers it holds, and how it is funded.

Structure and regional reach

The Committee is confirmed as an independent republican executive authority reporting to the President and the Cabinet of Ministers, specifically to the Deputy Prime Minister responsible for investment, export, trade, agriculture and water resources. Its structure extends well beyond the central apparatus: regional food safety departments in Karakalpakstan, the regions and Tashkent city, district and city-level inspections, a dedicated Food Safety Institute, a network of food, veterinary and phytosanitary laboratories with regional branches, a specialist training institute, an animal identification and tracking centre, an agrochemistry and soil analysis centre, a plant protection and veterinary medicine analysis centre, and a dedicated Border Food Safety Control Inspection.

This regional and border infrastructure means the Committee is designed to have a physical presence at every point where food, agricultural inputs and animal products move through the supply chain, from the border to the retail shelf.

Regulatory powers directly relevant to businesses

The statute grants the Committee a broad and detailed set of powers over food business operators and related sectors.

On licensing and registration, the Committee issues licences for wholesale and retail trade in mineral fertilisers and plant protection chemicals, registers food business operators, and maintains state registries of new food product types, food additives, chemicalisation agents, plant protection products, veterinary medicines and feed additives. It also issues permits for the experimental use of plant protection products and licenses specialised slaughterhouses and operators handling animal-origin products.

On risk-based oversight, the Committee classifies food products and operators by risk level (high, medium, low) and calibrates its control measures accordingly. Where risk factors are identified, it can apply temporary restrictions on the sale or import of food products and order the withdrawal of products found to be hazardous.

On border control, the Committee inspects quarantined products and goods subject to veterinary control at the State Border and border crossing points, checks genetically modified food and feed products entering the country, and issues permits for the import of mineral fertilisers and plant protection chemicals. Where imported food products fail to meet phytosanitary or veterinary requirements, the Committee applies statutory measures and notifies the relevant authorities of the exporting country.

On market surveillance, the Committee monitors compliance with HACCP principles by food business operators, conducts market surveillance to protect consumers from unsafe or counterfeit products, and monitors labelling, packaging, nutritional information and allergen disclosure accuracy. It also monitors the presence of contaminants, including pesticide and veterinary medicine residues, and pathogens in food products.

On enforcement, the Committee can issue binding orders to remedy violations, apply restrictive measures, and pursue court action where orders are not complied with. It can order the recall, withdrawal, disposal and destruction of food and feed products that do not meet safety requirements or that pose a risk to consumers.

Traceability and crisis response infrastructure

The statute requires the Committee to develop traceability documentation and systems for participants in the food supply chain, and gives it the right to demand traceability records and system information directly from operators. It also requires the Committee to maintain an electronic database registering cases of mass food poisoning and foodborne illness, to create rapid alert systems for consumers regarding hazardous food products, and to develop crisis management plans in coordination with other state bodies when a food safety crisis is declared. The Committee is also tasked with participating in international rapid alert networks, including INFOSAN and the Codex Alimentarius early warning system, and acting on the information these networks circulate.

International engagement

The Committee is designated as Uzbekistan's contact point for WTO sanitary and phytosanitary notification obligations, is tasked with harmonising domestic legislation with Codex Alimentarius, the World Organisation for Animal Health and the International Plant Protection Convention, and represents Uzbekistan's interests within these bodies. It is also mandated to cooperate with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and to participate in information exchange on cross-border risks, including foodborne illness, zoonoses and plant pests.

Funding: the Committee will be substantially fee-financed

The statute of the Development Fund, approved alongside the Committee's founding statute, is particularly informative for businesses because it discloses exactly which fees and payments will flow into the Committee's operating budget.

The Fund's financing sources include 100% of revenue from registering food business operators, new food products, food additives, chemicalisation agents and plant protection products; 100% of revenue from Border Food Safety Control Inspection services; 80% of net revenue from the Plant Protection and Veterinary Medicine Analysis Centre's services; a share of the fee for sanitary-epidemiological conclusions and special expertise on food and agricultural products (81.5% when provided through Public Service Centres, 78.25% through the unified e-government portal); all fees and payments collected through licensing, permitting and notification procedures in food safety, veterinary and phytosanitary areas; and 100% of revenue from transport unit clearance and quarantine inspection certification, and from international, domestic and re-export phytosanitary certificates.

In practical terms, this means every food business operator registration, every new product registration, every licence, every phytosanitary or veterinary certificate, and every border inspection generates a payment that directly funds the Committee's operations, including staff bonuses tied to performance indicators.

The statute includes an explicit safeguard on this point: incentive criteria for Committee staff are expressly prohibited from being tied to the number or volume of inspections, fines, licences, permits, certificates, registrations or paid services issued. Instead, incentives must be based on risk reduction, inspection quality, timely handling of business enquiries, digitalisation, transparency and compliance with international standards. This provision appears specifically designed to prevent the fee-funded model from creating an incentive for the Committee to multiply regulatory touchpoints.

What this means for your business

This statute is the practical rulebook for how the Food Safety Committee will actually operate day to day, and it confirms several points of direct relevance to companies in food, beverages, dietary supplements, agrochemicals, veterinary products and related import and distribution businesses.

First, the Committee has been built with comprehensive reach, from the border to the regions to the retail level, meaning companies should expect a genuinely centralised and consistently applied set of controls rather than the fragmented, multi-agency approach that existed previously.

Second, the extensive list of registration, licensing and certification touchpoints, each generating a fee that funds the Committee itself, means companies should budget for a structured, itemised cost of compliance as they register products, obtain permits, and move goods across the border. The explicit prohibition on tying staff incentives to enforcement volume is a positive signal, but companies should monitor in practice whether this constraint holds as the Committee becomes operational.

Third, the traceability and rapid alert obligations placed on the Committee mean companies should expect closer scrutiny of supply chain documentation and faster regulatory response to safety incidents than under the previous fragmented system.

Companies planning market entry or expansion in Uzbekistan's food, agrochemical or veterinary sectors should treat this statute as the operational reference point for what registration, licensing and compliance will actually look like once the Committee's regional and border infrastructure becomes fully functional.