What does "the take-away" in this text mean?

Question

After four days of increasing complaints from citizens across Houston, the city's Public Works Department finally posted some answers on its website. A spokesman told Local 2 the earthy or musty smell and the taste of dirt is from two naturally occurring compounds: MIB and geosmin, sometimes produced by seasonal algae blooms. The take-away ? The city says they are safe and the water is fine to drink.
_{Source: City of Houston: Water is safe to drink, use}

Does it mean to "summarize"?

Answer 1

Your understanding, "to 'summarize'", is quite close/correct.

This question should be answerable by dictionaries, but I think it may not be very obvious because of the spelling, and take away is usually used as a (phrasal) verb.

Here is its definition given in Macmillan Dictionary:

takeaway
^{noun [countable]}
3. an important piece of information to remember from a meeting, presentation etc
This could be the most important takeaway from today’s Fed announcement.