How a Concrete Nail Got into a Cookie(The End)

-The owner of the warehouse said that he had been delivered the cookies two days ago.
-You know, the distributors might have not realized it until that time and tried to give them away later. Here I have brought the cookies I produce now and I do not deny the mistake. I will apology to the victim family for me and others too.  I have children…
-If your child had eaten it what would have you done?-I would have been too furious and would have acted in the same way you are acting now. I would have seen the producer and told him some “good” words. He should have been careful while baking the cookies. I am very sorry and you can charge me for the mistake. We are not the people who will avoid the responsibility. By the way, I do not keep any nails in the baker’s… Though, nail might have been found there. The point is that nobody would have done it premeditatedly. We have to apology to the victim.”

I parted with them. It is the end of the investigation carried out to find the origin of the concrete nail that was found the cookie.

Hereinafter, corresponding institutions are obliged to control the situation in the area of the hospital and find out how healthy products we eat. Until corresponding bodies get seriously interested in the situation, here are the comments of those officials who represent these bodies.

The first question we asked each respondent was:”What would you do if you found a concrete nail in a cookie?”

Petre Tsiskarishvili, the Minister of Agriculture:
“A concrete nail…”
Journalist: Who is in charge to control the sphere?
P. Ts. We are. We should investigate the incident carefully. What kind of cookie was it? Which firm had produced it? I will put the corresponding department in charge of investigating the incident. There is a draft law on the “safety of the food products” that will become valid in 2008. The law will envisage the control on food products. Until that time, there is a Department for Veterinary and Safety of Food Products which regulates similar problems. As for raids, they are not carried out until 2008.

Lali Fafiashvili, MP, the Deputy Chairwoman of the Human Rights Committee: “In similar case I would throw away the nail and would not pay attention to it. If similar facts occur and they are urgent, we should draw our particular attention to the children’s food. Such food should be strictly controlled. Subsequently, any person has right to apply to the corresponding bodies to react on the fact. Victim can also appeal against the firm at the court.”

Manana Nachkhebia, a representative of the Parliamentary opposition:
“I would certainly get astonished at seeing the nail in a cookie. I would have had the felling of protest against Bendukidze, (the State Ministry), who had declared to us at the session where the draft law on food control was being discussed, that this sphere does not need any control. According to him, the only way to resolve the problem is that the customer will not buy bad products. However, a customer, who does not know whether the food he buys is bad or good, is unprotected. Unfortunately, nobody has a guarantee in our country that having eaten something s/he would not be poisoned, or would not find a mouse-tail, a concrete nail, a piece of thread or something else in the food. The problem is that there is no office to control the situation.”

Gogita Gegelashvili, MP, Deputy Chairman of the Health Committee, Neurologist: (He is laughing). “At first I would see the enterprise which produces the food and will investigate the fact. Are you serious?... Don’t say. I would have made the producer to swallow the nail. I remember the fact of smelling garlic when one day I entered the Central Hospital. I found out that there was a café for “Khashi” (a kind of soup prepared with meat, needs squashed garlic as a flavor). It happened 3-4 years ago. One more fact-I gave a shelter to families, who had lost houses after the earthquake, in my hospital (Neurology Institute). That-time government asked us to give shelter to those people and promised to move us into a new building. However, the government deceived us and we remained in the same building. Terrible things were going on there. Sick people were placed in the chambers on the same floor as those families resided. Sometimes the IDPs had funerals, birthday or wedding parties and we were taking the sick men to the surgery. Some people were carrying a coffin down the stairs and the nurses were taking the sick man up the stairs. I think the hospital should not give the accommodation to any kind of bakery or some other food producing firm in its building.

This particular case is very curious: The building belongs to the Ministry of Economics and has right to lease out the part of the building. The exploitation of the building is in the competence of the Ministry of Healthcare; the Ministry of Agriculture is responsible for baking the cookies in the building.

If a nail is found in a cookie, that means that there is insanitariness in the baker’s and it should be closed down. If this place is too good for food production, as it is too close to the market, let them remove the hospital from there.  The hospital cannot be next to the market. If they had come across with the nail in a cookie in America, the offender should have one million on his account to make the victim keep silence. As for the entrepreneur, you can easily understand what would have happened with him. This enterprise should be closed down immediately, it is evident.

Sozar Subari, Georgian Public Defender: “I have heard about violations in the Railway Hospital. The baker’s and some other things have functioned there for ten years. A bakery was in the building of the former mortuary too. Special service department within the Ministry of Agriculture should control the situation.  New staff has been hired for this department, but it has not started its activity yet.”

Vakhtang Megrelishvili, Deputy Minister of the Healthcare and Social Welfare: “Under the law, the hospital is an Ltd. It is run by the Agency for Enterprise Management within the Ministry of Economics. Consequently, the board of the hospital should agree the question of leasing out its accommodation with the Ministry. Afterwards, the hospital is not responsible what the firms produce in the area. In the previous years, Sanitary Inspection was in charge of similar cases.  Now I do not have exact information. The Health Ministry is not responsible for the incident, at all. A food item can be located in the area but it is not normal to violate the hygiene norms there. In fact, it is a crime.”

We hope corresponding bodies will get interested in the history and find out why the territory of the hospital has turned into a market. Why do they supply us with the cookies with a nail in them? Though, Georgian population has problems about anemia, it does not mean that the iron things should be placed straight in the food.

 Eka Gulua