The FINANCIAL — As the latest publication of the Economic Times stated, in an effort to combat rising obesity, chain restaurants in New York are now required to post calorie counts on their menus or face fines of up to USD 2,000. Studies have shown that one in three New Yorkers consume some 1,000 calories at lunch time alone, a meal that most office goers take outside their homes.
No matter how excessively you’re following a healthy lifestyle, time still leads to aging. Still, the more effort you make by eating and exercising properly the more you postpone the need for any intervention.
As Associated Press reports, fast food eateries are being required to prominently display calorie content at the counter, on the menu or on the trays customers use. For example, as the wire service says, a Big Mac with medium fries and a medium soda contains 1,130 calories, based on what McDonald’s is posting on its menus.
A comparable Burger King meal – a Whopper, medium fries and medium diet Coke – has slightly fewer calories – 1,040 – according to the Burger King website.
“No matter how excessively you’re following a healthy lifestyle regime, time will still lead to aging. Still, the more effort you make by eating and exercising properly, the more you postpone the need for any intervention,” declared Gia Gvaramia, the Leading Surgeon of Gia Gvaramia’s Aesthetic Centre, Associated Professor.
As far as healthy food’s concerned in Georgia, the first thing that comes to mind is its fabulous national mineral waters.
In 2006 Russia outlawed Georgian sparkling mineral water Borjomi, a health product that many ulcer patients have been relying upon since Soviet times. Gennady Onishchenko, Russia’s Chief Health Inspector ordered the ban allegedly due to the discovery of a batch containing fake Borjomi.
“The main priority for the company Borjomi is providing its customers with high quality products. We’re constantly working in this direction and that’s the reason why our products always meet the strict demands of the world market,” Zaza Kikvadze, General Director of Borjomi, told The FINANCIAL.
According to Kikvadze, their laboratories are equipped with all the latest technologies needed for proper operations in the sector and they’re accredited by the relative state bodies.
“Just a few days ago we finished a 3 months testing process in Japan, where the strictest standards are set on imported products. Borjomi passed the testing successfully and the company has already received ISO 22 000 certification – the modern system of quality management,” claimed Kikvadze.
ISO 22 000 is the latest standard which enables quality control management of a product during the whole cycle of its existence – starting from the initial collecting and bottling to the very net of trade distribution. The latter is the so called HACCP – Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points.
“Borjomi is the pioneer mineral water in CIS to meet ISO 22 000 international quality brand standards,” noted Kikvadze. It’s an honour to work in a company like Borjomi and produce mineral water which has endured and overcome the challenges of centuries. One could deliver an endless speech about the usefulness of Borjomi for human health. The brand is primarily associated with health, for Georgians or foreigners alike,” said Kikvadze.
As Kikvadze noted, together with Borjomi they’re producing other natural mineral waters as well like the low mineralized water Likani, spring waters Borjomi Spring and Bakuriani.
“Bakuriani just received a certificate for being a healthy water for children,” commented Kikvadze.
The Borjomi factory underwent state monitoring in April this year and received a national certificate.
“In 2007 Borjomi was the first mineral water brand to get ISO certified in CIS. The welcome success was preceded by hard work and huge effort. Since we care much about our customers the company has fully comprehended the social responsibility of offering high quality natural products. Borjomi has always been and will remain a quality guaranteed company,” stated Kikvadze.
“The group that conducts quality control of mineral water Nabeghlavi, as well as spring water Bakhmaro, consists of solely professionals. The production is carefully examined at different stages at a laboratory of the utmost modernity situated near the bottling plant,” Keti Chumburidze, Healthy Water, told The FINANCIAL.
According to Chumburidze, the laboratory is furnished with up to date German technology and equipment from the company Sartorius. After a local examination the production is inspected in Tbilisi at a licensed laboratory which issues quality certificates.
“There is no doubt that healthy local production is very important for the welfare of the population. We can proudly declare that our company does its name justice – Healthy Water – therefore our production is positively evaluated and appreciated by the population,” claimed Chumburidze.
In her words, the company has a 30% annual growth rate.
“The ISO certificate is the most authoritative document, recognized worldwide and of course being in possession of it helps us a lot,” said Chumburidze.
Several years ago Healthy Water managed to fulfill the requirements of the international standardization organization, passed three audits and was granted the ISO certificate. “Apart from being important for some formalities concerned with export, ISO certification helps the company to “keep fit”, since its operation is monitored by foreign auditors annually,” noted Chumburidze.
2 years ago Onishchenko restricted imports of Georgian (and Moldovan) wine – allegedly on health grounds. It is widely believed however, that the embargo was politically motivated. Both mineral water and wine are Georgia’s most famous – and biggest – exports, and as expected the ban had a severe impact on the country’s economy.
The medical profession has recognized the healthful and nutritive properties of wine for thousands of years. Hippocrates recommended specific wines to purge fever, disinfect and dress wounds, as diuretics, or for nutritional supplements, around 450 B.C. A French doctor wrote the earliest known printed book about wine around 1410 A.D.
Wine is a mild natural tranquilizer, serving to reduce anxiety and tension. As part of a normal diet, wine provides the body with energy, with substances that aid digestion, and with small amounts of minerals and vitamins. It can also stimulate the appetite. In addition, wine serves to restore nutritional balance, relieve tension, sedate and act as a mild euphoric agent to the convalescent and especially the elderly.
Moderate consumption of red wine on a regular basis may be a preventative against coronary disease and some forms of cancer. The chemical components thought to be responsible are catechins, also known as flavanoids and related to tannins. Catechins are believed to function as anti-oxidants, preventing molecules known as “free-radicals” from doing cellular damage. One particular form of flavinoid, called oligomeric procyanidin, recently proved to prevent hardening of the arteries.
There are also compounds in grapes and wine (especially red wine, grape juice, dark beers and tea, but absent in white wine, light beers and spirits) called resveratrol and quercetin. Clinical and statistical evidence and laboratory studies have shown these may boost the immune system, block cancer formation, and possibly protect against heart disease and even prolong life.
Over 400 studies worldwide, many of them long-term and in large populations, have concluded that most healthy people who drink wine regularly and moderately live longer. The single group exception, whose members should not consume any alcohol, is pre-menopausal women with a family history of breast cancer.
Georgia is the oldest wine producing region of Europe, if not the world. Because of this, it is often referred to as “The birth place of wine” or “The cradle of wine making”. The fertile valleys of the South Caucasus, which Georgia straddles, are believed by many archaeologists to be the source of the world’s first cultivated grapevines and neolithic wine production, over 7,000 years ago. Many also believe that the etymology of the word wine comes from the Georgian word for wine – gvino. Due to the many millennia of wine in Georgian history, the traditions of its viticulture are entwined and inseparable with the country’s national identity.
Among the best-known regions of Georgia where wine is produced are Kakheti (further divided into the micro-regions of Telavi and Kvareli), Kartli, Imereti, Racha-Lechkhumi, Kvemo Svaneti and Abkhazia.
According to the Department of Statistics for Georgia, the total amount of Georgian wine export in 2007 was 29,197,40 (USD 1,000).
According to the State Department of Vine & Wine Samtrest, the total volume of Georgian wines exported in Q1 of 2008 was 1,635,602 litres, 1,010,666 litres out of which were to Ukraine, 136,661 litres – to Latvia, and 81,441 litres – to Belarus.
Besides alcoholic and mineral drinks, Georgia is rich in national healthy dairy products.
In order to further pursue the healthy image of the company Eco-Food has launched BIO products.
“Eco-Food produces products enriched with Bifido bacteria, which conditions the normal digestion functions and is especially useful for children and the elderly. Bifido enriched products are the best curative means against disbacteria,” Shalva Alavidze, Eco-Food Director of Food Marketing and PR Department, told The FINANCIAL. “These are not classic BIO products. The launch of the pure BIO line is planned for 2009.”
Eco-Food has two ISO certificates: ISO 9001:2000 (Quality Management) and ISO 22000:2005 (Food Safety Management Systems).
“Quality Management means having management that meets international standards, which in the end helps the company to run correct management, and the Food Safety certificate helps monitor the whole chain of production, the latter being of high value to us. This very certification includes the whole chain of production – that the cold milk received should be delivered cold to the customer, that’s called the “from farm to table approach”. Companies involved in food production should by all means launch this approach,” noted Alavidze.
As he added, the company is completely responsible for the quality of dairy products. Though it’s also very important how the products are kept at the different stores where they’re sold. These products have an expiration date of 5 days so it’s highly important to keep them in proper conditions. These products must be kept in fridges and the fridges should not be turned off at night. A separate body inside the company is responsible for the monitoring of these issues. The quality management director Tamaz Makharashvili has a strict order developed and his staff are demanded to provide guarantee of products’ safety.
“It’s one of the global priorities to keep people safe from unhealthy products. Healthy products play an important role in maintaining healthy generations. In Georgia this was never an issue as the country has always been rich in natural useful products. However over time we’re becoming a part of the global market and our customers should be safe as far as unhealthy imported products are concerned,” said Alavidze.
Eco-Food was winner of Golden Brand 2007 awards, an annual awarding ceremony of the Golden Brands in Georgia.
As Georgia is an originally agricultural country, the local population must have healthy national meat products.
“In order to provide the proper supervision of product quality, the whole manufactory process goes under systematic monitoring. In addition to controlling the sanitary-hygienic standards, it’s also an essential factor to fulfill the set procedures on product processing and meat production in particular,” Mako Jaoshvili, Nikora PR manager, told The FINANCAL.
In her words, the ongoing passportization process considers the revision of technological maps and the renewal of separate procedure description.
An international standard integrated management system is being launched at the company, which together with quality management includes product safety and damage control due to the set procedures.
“Nikora’s mission is to carry out a client-oeriented business strategy. Hence, maintaining stable quality on its side means producing ecologically safe production, the taste features of which are worked out in accordance with the customer demand,” declared Jaoshvili.
According to Jaoshvili, sales statistics proved that both meat and fish production have doubled. Welcome figures are obvious in terms of ice-cream production as well and the most demanded one is soft ice-cream, freezers of which are already installed at Nikora’s shops as well as in the broader trade net.
This year the company expects 22% growth. According to Q1, 2007 results, production exceeded expectations by 7%.
The number of Nikora shops has also increased, already reaching 44 in Tbilisi.
“As a result of quality management and product safety ISO 9001:2000 and 22 000, on one hand it has become easier to control the increased scales of production, which is a guarantee of stable quality. And on the other hand, broader opportunities will be opened in regards to export,” said Jaoshvili.
Written by Kate Tabatadze
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