Georgia suspends Libre Tbilisi store

Georgia’s National Food Agency said on May 15 it fined JSC Nikora Trade and suspended operations at a Libre supermarket at 19 Rustavi Highway in Tbilisi after an unplanned inspection. The inspection followed information circulated on social media, the agency said. The regulator said inspectors found repeated critical violations at the store. (interpressnews.ge) Georgian media outlets, citing the agency, said those findings included expired products and a cat inside a food retail space. The enforcement action adds a new case to the agency’s public record of food-safety violations. (interpressnews.ge) The National Food Agency publishes enforcement notices and identified-violations updates on its website, where recent entries show other suspensions and sanctions against food businesses. ### Why did inspectors go to this specific Libre store? Social media posts prompted the inspection at the Libre outlet on Rustavi Highway, according to the National Food Agency statement carried by Interpressnews. The agency described the visit as an unplanned state control inspection at JSC “Nikora Trade” operating as “Libre,” and identified the outlet by address as 19 Rustavi Highway, Tbilisi. JSC Nikora Trade was named by the agency as the business operator tied to the store. (interpressnews.ge) The statement cited the company’s identification number as 206255808. ### What violations did the agency say it found inside? The National Food Agency said inspectors documented “repeated critical non-compliances” during the visit. (nfa.gov.ge) The agency did not, in the excerpts available through media reports, publish a full inspection checklist or the amount of the fine. Interpressnews reported that the agency linked the inspection to information about the presence of a cat in a food retail space. The same report said expired products were also found at the store. (interpressnews.ge) Newshub, also citing the agency, reported the cat was inside a food storage area. ### What exactly did the regulator do on May 15? May 15 was the date the agency said it imposed both measures: a fine and a suspension of operations at the store. (interpressnews.ge) The action applied to the Libre supermarket at 19 Rustavi Highway rather than to the broader Libre or Nikora network, based on the wording of the agency statement cited by local outlets. The National Food Agency has used similar sanctions in other food-safety cases. Its identified-violations page lists recent cases in April and May 2026 in which production processes or facility operations were suspended after inspections. ### How does this fit into Georgia’s food-safety enforcement system? The National Food Agency is the Georgian regulator that publishes food-safety enforcement notices and identified-violations updates on its official site. (interpressnews.ge) The agency’s English-language pages show recent notices involving suspensions of illegal meat processing, cheese production and other food-business activities. The agency operates under Georgia’s Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture, according to official National Food Agency documents and website materials. Those materials also show the agency issues permits and carries out food and veterinary controls. (interpressnews.ge) ### What is still not public? The fine amount was not disclosed in the source material reviewed for this article. The agency statement available through local media also did not say how long the suspension would remain in effect or what corrective steps the store must complete before reopening. (nfa.gov.ge) Nikora’s corporate or store-level response was not available in sources reviewed through accessible public pages. The company’s websites were not accessible through the browsing tool because of robots restrictions. (nfa.gov.ge) The National Food Agency’s next public update would most likely appear on its identified-violations or news pages, where it posts dated enforcement notices. As of the latest accessible listings, the agency was continuing to publish new violation entries in May 2026. (nfa.gov.ge 1) (nfa.gov.ge 2) (nikora.ge) (interpressnews.ge)