By Sarmen Bedrosian

A talk with Doctor of Nutrition David Pipoyan, Head of the Food Chain Risk Assessment Center of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, about food safety and eating habits in Armenia.

What are people in Armenia eating today? What is the typical Armenian diet?

The typical Armenian diet, I like to call it the historical Armenian diet, was really very healthy and it’s very close to the Mediterranean diet, as Armenians used to eat many fresh fruits, vegetables, salads, meat.

It  was very common to eat cereals, but unfortunately the modern Armenian diet isn’t illustrative of the typical Armenian diet.

Armenians were very good with the preparation of bread with sourdough, for example with lavash, a typical Armenian bread which was traditionally made without production yeast.

There was also the consumption of olive oils and fish, which is a very good source of essential fatty acids particularly for omega-3 and omega-6. Sometimes, specialists of nutrition and food science ask how it is possible that the Armenian diet is close to the Mediterranean diet because in Armenia there is no olive and consumption of olive oil is low, but, I would like to highlight first of all that historical Armenia was bigger than it is now, and in Armenia there was also usage of Flaxseed oil which is an extremely good source of omega-3 and omega-6.

Particularly,  if we discuss the issue of nutrients, healthy dietary patterns, consumption of fiber and whole wheat, increased consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables, of course you will resolve the problem of fiber and fiber consumption.

You know in Armenia there is a large variety of fruits and vegetables and they are really very rich in nutrients. The antioxidant capacity of Armenian food commodities is really very high. You know that the humidity is very low in Armenia, we have a lot of sunny days.

I would like to also highlight one very interesting point. Armenians are also combining meat with vegetables. In Armenia, it is very typical to eat dolma, which is prepared with grape vines, which contain a lot of polyphenols and polyphenolic activity and antioxidant capacity.

Armenians were eating a lot of salads, particularly Greek salads, with a lot of leafy vegetables, also cereals like beans, and you know that legumes and cereals  have a really very important role for nutrition. But unfortunately, I have to say that the modern Armenian diet is not so healthy.

Armenians, in the sense of food culture, are very open minded. Usually, Armenians are traditional, traditionally members of a monoethnic society, but with cuisine, since we have the Armenian diaspora in a wide range of countries, Armenians are usually taking the very good dishes of those countries. So Georgian, Russian, Ukrainian, Arabic cuisine is very popular in Armenia.

A lot of cuisines had an impact for the modern Armenian diet and not only in the sense of restaurants. For example, there are some countries where you can find a lot of foreign restaurants, but the population cooks traditional cuisines in their homes. But in Armenia, the majority of families have a lot of recipes from Ukrainian or Russian cuisines. It also became very popular to use buckwheat, buckwheat has good beneficial effects on human health, but it came from Russian culture. Historically Armenians were using more Emmer wheat then buckwheat, but now the consumption of buckwheat in Armenia is higher than Emmer wheat.

And, of course, you know that fast food and bad dietary patterns are modern issues in the world, and Armenia is not excluded. The consumption of trans fatty acids is discussed everywhere - sugar containing beverages, etc. But you know the new world is really developing very fast and each country must take into consideration the negative impact and to find a link between nutrition and the health status of the population.

In this aspect, and in this sense consumer awareness, information dissemination is very important.  You know the best programs in the field are struggling against bad dietary patterns, and they give appropriate information, to build credibility. In this case, there is really a very important role for mass media, scientists, policy makers and state authorities. They must cooperate because, for consumers, the source of information is important. It must be trustworthy.

What factors led to the changes in the Armenian diet?

Recently, I’ve been thinking about this issue and I wish I had enough time to investigate this field. Food culture is related to culture, history, etc. Being only a specialist in food science and nutrition is not enough. You need a lot of other specialists and a multi-disciplinary approach.

First, there’s the impact of the Soviet Union. I travel a lot, particularly in post-Soviet countries - Belarus, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, etc. I’ve noticed that there are a lot of common dishes. First off, the common language, was an important and powerful source, and I always compare it to the EU, as I used to live in the EU and Italy.

In Italy you have typical Italian cuisine and the Italian diet. You go to France and you have the typical French cuisine and the French diet, and so on. And you know there is also cultural heritage, interaction, etc. but I have never seen that.

In Italy, they are very open minded to other cuisines but the Italians  like, adore, appreciate and value their cuisine. It’s their strength and source of pride.

In the Soviet Union, it was like a common language, and the common language and common cultural things, like buckwheat became very popular in all the Soviet countries.

Take vodka.  Armenians didn’t have any vodka tradition. In Armenia there’s the hot weather and Armenians were traditionally preparing and drinking wine. It has only been in the past 10 years that wine and winemaking is becoming popular again. The majority of Armenian men drink vodka. Armenia’s climate is not appropriate for vodka. It contains a high percentage of alcohol and in Armenia we have 6 months of very high temperatures.

The first and most important reason for the change was the Soviet Union. The second reason, as previously mentioned,  is the Armenian community, the Armenian diaspora. From each community they bring back dishes from their countries. In Armenia we have fantastic Syrian and Lebanese restaurants with very good dishes from Syrian and Lebanese cuisines.  I like that cuisine.

These Armenian communities brought their food culture and food traditions, and they spread this culture, so it’s becoming more common. Now we’re doing nutritional surveys, so I see that it’s not only in restaurants that Armenians go and eat khachapuri, khinkali from Georgian cuisine and other Russian and Ukrainian cuisines, but also it is becoming common in their daily diets.

Is there malnutrition in Armenia? Particularly with an overabundance of macronutrients and insufficient amounts of micronutrients?

To conduct a dietary exposure assessment of micronutrients, macronutrients and nutrients in general you need to carry out a risk assessment.

You must analyze the diet to understand overall consumption of all food commodities containing that nutrient. Only afterwards can you combine the occurrence data with the consumption data to understand the population status.

We are carrying out such investigations but unfortunately, they are pilot studies. To cover the whole country, you need a lot of financing which we unfortunately don’t have. Anyway, I have to say in Armenia, regarding nutrition and even  micro- and macronutrient intakes, it is very important to carry out cluster analysis.

Why am I mentioning cluster analysis? In Armenia, there are quantile groups of poor populations and it is impossible to compare the diet of the poor population and the rich population. In Armenia there is this kind of inequality, and unfortunately around 25% of the population is poor and of course their diet and their nutritional status regarding nutrient intakes must be investigated separately.

Usually, we conduct our investigations in Yerevan, because our center is located in Yerevan. But the economic situation in Yerevan and the economic situation in rural communities is not the same. That’s why the interpolation of the data is also not correct, and it is not the correct methodology. But, in Yerevan, we have conducted a study, we have our survey, and it didn’t show a significant problem regarding micronutrients.

Are there any nutrition-related policies at this stage in Armenia? For example, a micronutrient fortification policy?

(Laughs)For me its utopian. First, the definition and the perception of the definition of the food risk for the consumer and the food safety risk assessor are totally different.

It’s the same for any nutrition-related policy, since any nutrition related policy must be evidence based and risk based. Evidence based and risk-based nutrition must be evidence-based research which includes surveys, diet investigations, dietary exposure assessments, risk assessments, etc.

Now, in Armenia, some beverage producers argue that it’s unjust to have taxes just on beverage producers, because they’re not the only producers using high contents of sugar, exceeding 5 grams.

To have a nutrition- based survey, first of all, you have to understand the significance of each commodity.  As for sugar, for high sugar content we have yoghurts, cakes, sweets, a lot of other products, and you have to understand the food consumption frequency, you have to understand the portions, and you have to understand dietary exposure.

At the same time, I would like to highlight that nutrition-based policy is an expensive undertaking.

To carry out those investigations, you first have to have the appropriate infrastructure, the technical knowledge, and the technical capacity.

It was the same in the case of a fortification program when I was living in Italy. Now, that law of fortification with iron and folic acid hasn’t been adopted. And I’m happy about that. The thing to understand with fortification is that you have to know the consumption of those agricultural food commodities and the diet peculiarities. As I’ve already mentioned I was living in Italy in the period and I have a good colleague of mine, a friend of our institute, who was involved in the assessment of fortification.

I asked for an appointment with him to ask what the reason was to ban the fortification in Italy. I saw all the documents and papers for nutrition- based policy making and I saw that the reason for banning was because the Italians consume a lot of flour-containing commodities like bread and pasta.

So, without taking diet peculiarities into consideration, it’s impossible to have a nutrition-based policy. Unfortunately, the same holds true for nutritional risk assessment.

We have also adopted the European methodology. Why do we use the EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) guidelines? Because it’s the best evidence-based institutional guideline and the EFSA covers the whole sphere of food safety - nutrition, biohazards, contaminants, GMOs, mycotoxins, etc.

And it is a community-based food safety risk assessment authority. It’s based in Italy in Parma and is for all 28 member states.

It is important to mention that scientific knowledge and experience in this field is extremely important. For nutritional surveys, I’ve mentioned the issue of rich and and poor populations in terms of variability. In evidence- based nutritional surveys, there is variability and there is uncertainty.

For example, for the poultry antibiotic risk assessment survey we carried out we have a population that eats a very small amount of poultry. They’re a very small percent of the population. But then there are those consumers who follow healthy diets and go to gym, who have increased poultry consumption. Their risk isn’t the same. Of course, if you have more consumption, you’ll have more exposure, but that percent of the population and consumers, they’re our residents, they are our consumers. So, it means we also have to think about them.

There’s another important issue for evidence-based nutritional surveys. You know that cereals contain mycotoxins.  During our investigation, we were doing risk assessments for mycotoxins in cereals. We discovered in the population that we have one group, one cluster, with increased buckwheat consumption. Those are people suffering from diabetes. They have an increased consumption of buckwheat which means they will have a higher intake of mycotoxins. We need to think about this group. We have to communicate the risk and try to decrease the levels particularly for this group of the population. Unfortunately, as I’ve already mentioned, it is difficult with a lack of funding.

We were only established in 2012. Nevertheless,  I’m proud that we were able to develop this capacity with cooperation from EU countries and particularly with Italy, which is the focal point of the EFSA in the field of nutrition and food safety risk assessment Without their support and technical assistance, it would have been impossible to establish this kind of center in Armenia.

Does the Center engage with food producers? Is there any cooperation with drafting HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) and other good manufacturing guidelines?

We develop guidelines for producers. Last year we published very good models for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points. Why? The HACCP system is based on risk assessment where the producer must take into consideration the risks related with the type of industry.

Cooperation with scientific organizations is very important. If, for example, you are processing and  are not aware that in that territory there is some specific contaminant, that’s dangerous. That’s why it is really very important to carry out good risk assessments, and to develop and elaborate a good plan and to use a decision tree.  

I tell my students to use a decision tree if they want to become  good specialists. Unfortunately, I have to say that in Armenia manufacturing standards are not based on best productional practices, like good veterinary, agricultural, hygiene and good management  practices.

This is due, in part, to the fact that the  technical language during the Soviet Union was Russian. The majority of the documentation was in Russian, the codes and standards.

And now the changes, these drastic changes, these fast changes, are an obstacle for producers, particularly for a technologist who is used to working with the codes and the same standards, who doesn’t know English, etc.

There are no translated documents of the best manufacturing practices in Armenian. We are trying and have produced a lot of documents in Armenian. We’re also trying to cooperate with producers but without state support, its impossible. The scientific center doesn’t have enough capacity and enough resources.

Of course, from the point of view of the technical capacities, we can offer support.  But the political willingness to act is the responsibility of the government. The scientific institute can’t have significant control in this field.

Are there any educational programs in Armenia to help increase consumer awareness of nutrition?

We are cooperating with the mass media, with high ranking TV programs regarding consumer awareness raising.

We are cooperating with Shant TV, with Armenia TV, with a lot of mass media outlets; radio etc. We give many interviews daily.

I think one of the strengths of the center is to give scientific knowledge. We’re not cooperating with producers, which is really very important, in order to be independent.  

Scientists and science must be independent. The main problem facing the sciences in Armenia is that we do not have a private science sector.

If we compare our situation with that in developed countries, the good food science specialists in developed countries are not usually  looking for jobs in state scientific organizations. Most are more interested in private research and development companies like Barilla, Nestle, etc., which offer good salaries and good opportunities.

In Armenia, we have no private research and development. If you look at the science finances of other countries, state funding is very small compared to private funding. In Armenia, we do not have a private research sector, which is restricting.  If you are paid and financed by the state, you will not have the financial resources to conduct full investigations and develop nutritional-based policies.

Some argue that food processing is used to mitigate risks and help ensure food safety, quality and preservation. Others argue that the consumption of processed foods contribute  to poor eating habits and poor health. What’s your position in this debate?

First, to pose the question in such a manner is  not only confusing but is incorrect since, as you know, there  are different risks in the food supply chain.

There are acute risks like microbiological parameters, and there are chronic risks like chemical contaminants, inorganic pollutants, heavy metals etc.

For example, if you have milk with high microbial contamination, pasteurization and high temperature treatment can be beneficial in this case.

But,  of course,  some types of processing, particularly for potatoes, tomatoes, etc.,  add some preservatives etc. that are more intensive.

That’s why I say in the field of food safety, particularly if you attend a conference there are always three groups present - risk assessors, risk managers and risk communicators.

Risk assessors usually come from a science background. Risk managers come from a policy background -  from government, from a ministry, from inspectorates. Risk communicators are usually from mass media organizations and NGOs.

It is fantastic.  All risk assessors have their common language. All mass media sources have their own language. For risk assessors and specialists of food toxicology, we say there is no poison nor any remedy. The dose lies in differentiating remedy from poison. This is our first law, like our modern law.

First of all, we have to compare matrixes and analytes and of course health impacts. We have acute health impacts for microbiological parameters and for acute food poisonings. And of course, we have the chronic risk assessment, long term chronic risk assessment, without any laboratory investigation and comparing the final quantitative data.

Like the majority of micronutrients, they have different maximum residual level and they have different acceptable daily intakes, but when you give the risk, it’s the unique data, it’s a ratio between acceptable daily intake and of course your daily consumption, if it is higher than the recommended level that means it’s at a concern level, so the content of the residual metals doesn’t matter and it is really very interesting that during our investigation once we discovered that the most contaminated agricultural food commodity, with molybdenum and copper, was leafy vegetables particularly fennel and basil.

After risk assessment we discovered that there is no risk as we consume very small contents in very small portions. But if you have a food commodity which has a significant role in the diet, like potatoes in the Armenian diet, even with small contents it can be high risk. That’s why we are evidence-based nutritionists and evidence-based risk assessors who speak out only after conducting comprehensive studies.

Sarmen Bedrosian is a
Food Science and Agribusiness Alumnus
From the University of Sydney