Raising the food safety bar
THESE safety measures are not only focused on the local producers and manufacturers, but are equally applicable to the global importers and exporters.
With more than 60% of the global agri-foods trade value, which has twice the growth rate of the primary food products, processed food becomes an immediate target for food safety.
Recalls and safety alerts
When it comes to food standards, safety should be the primary goal of all manufacturers.
Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) has overall policy responsibility for monitoring the conduct and outcomes of food safety recalls in Australia.
In June 2006, there was recall from Roma Food products, an Australian owned company primarily involved in the development, production and marketing of health, gourmet and dietetic foods.
The company, which also has overseas distribution centres in NZ, PNG and Singapore had to recall its Orgran Pizza and Pastry Multimix due to the labelling irregularity in not declaring the presence of soy protein.
A simple irregularity like this could cause consumer health hazard by affecting those who are allergic or intolerant towards soy protein.
However, Roma Food Products had a voluntary consumer level recall.
Consumers who have a soy protein allergy or intolerance were asked to return the products to the place of purchase for a full refund.
Even big names in the food industry have not been sparred from recall- Nestle had to recall its baby milk power in China due to excessive iodine content.
Recently, Singapore’s food safety authority issued a recall of Cadbury’s chocolate products which were manufactured in UK following a recall by the company itself in the UK.
The Asian food safety scenario
Food safety and quality regulation in most Asian countries are a multi-agency affair, with the health, agriculture and environment ministries all taking a role in strategy, legislative control and funding.
In turn, departments such food and drug administration, environmental hygiene, and food standards are responsible for implementation of standards and monitoring for compliance.
Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority (AVA) Singapore assistant director corporate communications Goh Shih Yong said, “Each agency focuses on a specific area.
“For example, in Singapore, AVA is the national food safety authority that regulates food safety from source to just before the retail.
“The National Environmental Agency regulates foods that are prepared at the retail level for direct consumption.”
International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) Southeast Asia scientific program manager Pauline Chan said, “Each country in SEA has its own set of food laws and food regulations that cover the food safety standards.”
The ILSI has special consultative status with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations.
Among countries in South East Asia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines are moving ahead with harmonising the food safety standards towards international standards of Codex Alimentarius.
The other ASEAN countries are trying to catch up on account of limited resources.
For example, there are two main agencies in the Philippines tasked to ensure the safety of food in the country.
One is the Department of Agriculture, which ensures good agricultural practices for safety of food from the farm to the market.
The other is the Department of Health, which issues processed food compliance guidelines for labelling both for local and imported food.
As of this time there are no records of Australian food with food safety issues in the Philippines.
There are usually two options for food found non-compliant to Philippine food regulations: voluntary recalls are initiated by the company or else the government regulatory agency takes action.
The head of corporate communications at leading food and health supplement enterprise Cerebos Pacific, Daniel Quek, told FOOD Magazine, “The main issues manufacturers in Asia focus on are production and quality assurance standards.
“Hence good manufacturing practice (GMP) certification is a requirement for most modern companies together with HACCP certification.
“Many companies also use ISO9000 and ISO14000 standards.
“In Asia, these are used in combination with local country food regulations which tend to focus on food handling and hygiene.”
Singapore in focus
Austrade Singapore business development manager (food and beverage) Tan Hwai Yin said Australian exporters have always placed great emphasis on food safety.
In terms of meeting safety standards, the bigger establishments tended to have more financial and support structures to go through the audit process of obtaining food safety certification compared to the smaller scale operations.
“Countries in this part of the world have been hit by several food scares such as Nipah virus and bird flu of late,” Yin said.
“Singapore has upheld very high food regulatory standards and in the wake of these food scares, it affirms Singapore’s AVA’s firm stand on not compromising their requirements to maintain high food safety standards.”
AVA’s Goh reiterated that any food, regardless of its source, if found unsafe, will be rejected and would be withdrawn from the market.
The Singapore importers of food would be informed of the reason for rejection and certain matters are also notified to the authority for the exported food products in the exporting country.
The exporter and/or the authority will then need to take action to rectify the problem before exporting further products to Singapore.
The government has introduced many initiatives to help adopt HACCP by providing affordable self-help toolkits and an accreditation scheme.
In spite of these efforts, just above 60% of the local manufacturers with more than 10 employees have obtained certification.
These numbers are far lower when compared to Australia and the USA with 80% adoption.
In Singapore, food manufacturers have to adhere to regulatory bodies like the AVA, Ministry of Health and Environment, for their manufacturing facilities, hygiene, and so on.
Points to ponder
While policy makers gear up to providing the best safety measures to address the ‘known’ food safety concerns, ‘new’ food safety concerns are increasingly on the rise.
Some of the new concerns relating to the presence of unhealthy elements causing uncertain health effects in particular segments of the population include, for example, the presence of food pathogens, allergens or contaminants in certain food ingredients.
The newest cause of concern, which threatens food safety, is the possibility of food borne bio-terrorism attacks.
Thus, safety standards will need to be ensured as a part of personal responsibility by the companies, along with government regulations.
It will go a long way in reducing food-borne safety hazards.
21-Sep-2006