The hygienic certificate — a document once widely sought as proof of a facility's or product's sanitary conformity — no longer exists in Georgian law. The current food safety code replaces this instrument with a different, modern system: registration as a business operator, approval where required, and permanent mechanisms of state control. On this page we explain what has replaced the hygienic certificate and which obligations you carry, as a business operator, in the sphere of hygiene and safety.
What replaced the hygienic certificate
The abolition of the hygienic certificate means that instead of one-off documentary proof, the law demands a continuous, accountable status: a person who produces, processes, or distributes food must be registered as a business operator, and its activity must conform to statutory requirements at every stage. Where approval is required, that status is granted on the basis of inspection results — and inspection is precisely the mechanism that once performed the certifying function. This approach allows the state to supervise real processes rather than a document, and it shifts the center of gravity of hygiene compliance onto the operator's own continuous systems.
A business operator must carry out, in the manner established by legislation, the registration of the relevant activity in the register of economic activities. Upon starting or ceasing the activity, or changing any registered data connected with it, the operator must apply to the National Agency of Public Registry to amend the register. Carrying on activity as a business operator without registration is prohibited — and from the hygiene perspective this rule is decisive, since registration is what connects an enterprise to the control system.