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BookletMeeting report. FAO Regional meeting on food safety indicators in Asia and the Pacific – results of the pilot projects in Bhutan, China, Cook Islands and the Philippines. 2020
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No results found.Food safety can have a significant impact on public health and economic/trade implications and more importantly, it is a fundamental part of food security. However, the social and economic consequences of unsafe food are often invisible in many developing countries. This often leads the policy makers to consider the topic of food safety less of a priority and national budget allocation is not appropriately done. There is already a set of food security indicators to capture various aspects of food insecurity. As part of the food security indicators, a set of nutrition indicators also exist to complete the picture of food security from the efforts towards the sustainable nutrition aligning with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Similarly, a Codex Alimentarius guideline adopted in 2017 recommends that countries establish food safety indicators for each desired outcome for the effective national food control system. Considering the global recommendations, in 2018-2019, four countries with different capacity levels, namely, Bhutan, China, Cook Islands, and the Philippines volunteered to pilot an initiative to develop food safety indicators, based on their countries’ capacities and contexts. Key indicators specifically tailored to their specific situations were piloted in each one of the four countries, and upon completion of the projects, a regional meeting was held to share the results of the pilot projects; to discuss the experiences, challenges and lessons learnt on the development of food safety indicators; and to discuss a way forward for the initiative to be scaled up to make a regional guidance tool. -
MeetingAddressing Food Safety Challenges of the Asia-Pacific Region 2018In the Asia and the Pacific region, food safety is important from the dual perspectives of improving public health and nutrition and enhancing trade in food commodities. Concerns of consumers on the fitness for consumption of food produced and traded across borders needs to be allayed through effective risk-based systems that assure safety and quality throughout the food chain. The paper discusses the key challenges being faced, some solutions, and potential partnerships (private sector, civil society, South-South triangular cooperation, development partners) that can be used to enhance food safety systems in the region. It describes FAO’s contribution to the strengthening of technical capacity to implement risk-based approaches in critical areas such as food inspection, monitoring, and surveillance; laboratory analysis; import control and strengthening the evidence base required for the framing of rules, regulations and procedures. It explains, with examples, how improved food-control measures and codes of practice can be implemented at every step of the chain, enabling smallholders to produce safer food and gain access to markets. It underscores the importance of implementing FAO’s action plan for tackling antimicrobial resistance (AMR) through technical capacity development, evidence generation, governance and dissemination of good practices. The paper dwells on FAO's One Health Regional Initiative, currently being rolled out, as an expanded multidisciplinary opportunity to demonstrate benefits to agriculture, food systems and the environment in the region. It argues that the adoption of voluntary and international food standards, especially from Codex, can lead to multiple wins for the consumer, for the private sector and the government in the form of safer and more nutritious food, increased innovation and trade and better public health. Ministers are invited to advise FAO on areas of focus in the development of national capacities in core technical areas of food safety and cohesive actions to harmonize food safety standards in the Asia-Pacific region to safeguard public health and promote trade.
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MeetingReport on the Outcome of the FAO Regional Meeting on Agricultural Biotechnologies in Sustainable Food Systems and Nutrition in Asia-Pacific 2018The FAO Regional Meeting on Agricultural Biotechnologies in Sustainable Food Systems and Nutrition in Asia-Pacific was held from 11 to 13 September 2017 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as a follow-up to the 2016 FAO International Symposium on “The Role of Agricultural Biotechnologies in Sustainable Food Systems and Nutrition”. The purpose of the regional meeting was to engage a broad range of stakeholders in the dialogue on the role and application of agricultural biotechnologies to improve food security and nutrition and make food systems more sustainable in the Asia-Pacific region. The meeting highlighted that a wide range of low- to high-tech agricultural biotechnologies are currently being used in the crop, forestry, livestock and fishery sectors to ensure food and nutrition security and to enhance adaptation and resilience of the agriculture sector to climate change in the Asia-Pacific region. It also underlined that one of the key constraints in the development and application of agricultural biotechnologies in the region is lack of investments. The meeting further noted the large gap among countries in the region regarding the application, capacities and the enabling environment for agricultural biotechnologies, and called for countries and other relevant stakeholders to foster and strengthen partnerships, in particular through South-South Cooperation, public-private-partnerships, networking and other mechanisms, to increase investments and strengthen science and innovation cooperation so that the needs of smallholders in the region can be met. The outcomes of the deliberations have been captured and summarized in this information note.
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