FAO ANNOUNCES NEW INITIATIVES TO IMPROVE FOOD SAFETY AND QUALITY
A series of initiatives aimed at improving food safety and quality, following recent food safety incidents which have caused serious turmoil in the world food markets and raised concern among consumers, was announced today by the Assistant Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, Hartwig de Haen. At the Committee on World Food Security currently meeting in Rome (28 May - 1 June 2001), Mr. de Haen said: "Food safety and quality have become subjects of increased concern for consumers, producers and policy makers all over the world."
FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS (FAO) REGIONAL
OFFICE FOR AFRICA, ACCRA - TEL. 675000/7010930
PRESS RELEASE NO. 01/31
Rome, 1 June 2001.-
In collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), the FAO
intends to convene a Global Forum on Food Safety Regulators in October 2001.
The venue is yet to be determined. "The main purpose of the Global Forum is
to promote the exchange of information and experience on how to deal with
food safety issues of potential importance to public health and
international food trade," Mr. de Haen underlined.
Experiences in the reduction of food-borne diseases, in establishing
food-safety regulations and risk management procedures, in dealing with
emerging food-borne illnesses, in new inspection models, in the
implementation of the Codex Alimentarius standards and guidelines and
transboundary consequences of food safety emergencies will be the main
subjects on the agenda of the Global Forum on Food Safety Regulators,
according to FAO.
The Global Forum will not be a decision making body, nor will it
duplicate the work of the Codex Alimentarius Commission. It will bring
together officials involved in the regulation of food safety and risk
management from all over the world. In addition to international
organizations, non-governmental organizations representing consumers,
producers, the food industry and trade interests will also be involved in
the discussions, FAO indicated.
In the meantime, a joint technical consultation on BSE (the mad cow
disease) will take place shortly in Paris (11-14 June 2001) to review the
scientific information available and address outstanding questions related
to this animal disease and its transmission to humans in the form of a
variant of the Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease. The joint technical consultation,
organized by WHO, FAO and Office International des Epizooties (OIE), will
focus on preventing a global spread of the disease and on protecting both
human and livestock populations.
Another initiative launched by FAO and WHO is a Pan-European
Conference on Food Safety and Quality to be held in Budapest from 18 to 21
February 2002. Its main objective is to promote the creation of a platform
for mutual understanding of food safety and quality problems through
institutional cooperation and exchange of information among European
countries, according to FAO.
The Pan-European Conference will discuss the feasibility of
establishing an information and communication system on food safety and
animal and plant health including a rapid alert system.
The idea to convene a conference on food safety and quality for the
entire European region was proposed by the Netherlands and endorsed at the
last session of the FAO Regional Conference for Europe (Porto, July 2000).
Similar conferences are being considered by FAO for other regions of the
world.
In addition to the above, FAO and WHO are participating actively in
a number of related initiatives sponsored by others such as the UK/OECD
Conference on New Biotechnology Food and Crops: Science, Safety and Society
which will take place in Bangkok in July 2001.
The quality and safety of the food supply are of increasing
importance for developing countries as well. In response to this, the FAO
recently proposed setting up a Food Safety and Quality Facility for the
world's least developed countries (LDCs) establish the necessary
institutional framework and infrastructure to improve the safety and quality
of their food products and to participate more actively in the international
standard setting bodies such as the Codex Alimentarius Commission.
The proposal was made at the third UN Conference on the LDCs
(Brussels, 14-20 May 2001). The Facility will include a US$98 million trust
fund. In addition to upgrading national food safety and quality systems, it
would also assist poor countries to comply with the Codex Alimentarius
standards and guidelines.
"Improving the safety, quality and sanitary standards of food
products in the developing countries would significantly improve their
export performance and, at the same time, protect consumers in both
exporting and importing countries," according to FAO.
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