The growing number of production units in food and beverage industry, changes in technology and the variety of products has urged the Food and Drug Organization (FDO) to develop new regulations in the light of new scientific food knowledge since 2002. The development of mentioned standards including the minimum standards for establishment and operation of different food factories continued until 2005, but the policy for development of standards changed in June 2006 when it was decided that technical and health standards be developed for the establishment and operation of food production and packaging units as a general standard and details such as production line equipment, laboratory and specific hygienic standards be developed and approved to produce each product in separate standards specific for that product. Furthermore, developing guidelines pertaining to conditions and assessment of functional products (Probiotics) was also added to the agenda. According to paragraph (b) of Article 4 and paragraph (c) of Article 5 of Biosafety Act of Islamic Republic of Iran and also given the importance of investigating safety of genetically modified (GM) food, FDO developed and ratified the current guideline. This guideline is the first edition of “the guideline for monitoring and evaluation of raw materials and imports of GM food products” that was ratified by the Office for Monitoring and Evaluation of Food, Cosmetics and Hygiene Products in 2008.
It should be noted that because of the ever growing nature of global development, the mentioned standards will be revised and updated, when necessary, and recommendations proposed will be examined by the biosafety working group of the Ministry of Health and the improved guideline will made public after approval.
It is worth noting that all relevant standards including the Cartagena Biosafety Protocol, biological safety law, related regulations and the current guideline are available on the website of the Food and Drug Organization http://fda.behdasht.gov.ir in the biosafety committee secretariat.
This guideline was developed in 2008 by the FDO in collaboration with the following:
The GMO committee, the center of reference laboratories of FDO, Deputy of Health, Deputy of Treatment and Deputy of Research and Technology of Ministry of Health, Pasteur Institute of Iran, National Institute for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Institute of Standard and Industrial Research of Iran, Deputy of Crop Production of Jihad-e-Keshavarzi, Biotechnology Research Center of Jihad-e-Keshavarzi, Faculty of Pharmacy of Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Office of Food Industries at Karaj Faculty of Agriculture, Tarbiat Modares University, and Faculty of Energy Engineering. It was revised in January 2005 by the biosafety working group of Ministry of Health, Treatment and Medical Education.
This guideline was ratified by the President of the FDO on February 4, 2015 and came into force on the date of ratification.