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Book (stand-alone)Assuring Food Safety and Quality. Guidelines for Strengthening National Food Control Systems
Food and Nutrition Paper 76
2003Effective national food control systems are essential to protect the health and safety of domestic consumers. They are also critical in enabling countries to assure the safety and quality of their foods entering international trade and to ensure that imported foods conform to national requirements. The new global environment for food trade places considerable obligations on both importing and exporting countries to strengthen their food control systems and to implement and enforce risk-based foo d control strategies. Consumers are taking unprecedented interest in the way food is produced, processed and marketed, and are increasingly calling for their Governments to accept greater responsibility for food safety and consumer protection. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have a strong interest in promoting national food control systems that are based upon scientific principles and guidelines, and which address all sect ors of the food chain. This is particularly important for developing countries as they seek to achieve improved food safety, quality and nutrition, but will require a high level of political and policy commitment. In many countries, effective food control is undermined by the existence of fragmented legislation, multiple jurisdictions, and weaknesses in surveillance, monitoring and enforcement. These guidelines seek to provide advice to national authorities on strategies to strengthen food contr ol systems to protect public health, prevent fraud and deception, avoid food adulteration and facilitate trade. They will enable authorities to choose the most suitable options for their food control systems in terms of legislation, infrastructure and enforcement mechanisms. The document delineates the overarching principles of food control systems, and provides examples of possible infrastructures and approaches for national systems. The target users of these Guidelines are national authorities concerned with ensuring food safety and quality in the interests of public health and consumer protection. The Guidelines will also be of assistance to a range of other stakeholders including consumer groups, industry and trade organizations, farmer groups and any other groups or associations that influence national policy in this area. -
MeetingInstitutional and scientific co-operation, networking and capacity building in the field of food safety and quality
Hungary and The Netherlands
2002This paper explains the situation in Hungary and The Netherlands regarding scientific co-operation, networking and capacity building in the field of food quality and safety. Specific details are given about institutional co-operation including exchanges between staff and students, collaborative projects in policy and science advancement, institutional and scientific networking projects and capacity building. Within a dynamic and fragile marketplace, with ever changing consumer expectations, the implications and application of a Pan-European approach to further scientific co-operation in food safety and quality are raised by this example. -
MeetingFAO/WHO Regional Conference on Food Safety for the Americas and the Caribbean - FInal Report - San Jose (Costa Rica), 6-9 December 2005
Practical actions to promote food safety
2006Also available in:
Ensuring safe food is essential for the protection of human health and for improving the quality of life in all countries. The importance of safe food, whether domestically produced and consumed, imported or exported, is well known by the countries of the Americas and the Caribbean. An estimated 57,000 deaths have occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean as a result of food- and waterborne diarrhoea in 2004, but even this estimated burden likely greatly underestimates the true magnitude of th e food-borne disease problem in the region. Each food-borne disease outbreak results in a number of direct and indirect costs, in addition to the resultant human suffering. Furthermore, food safety is foundational to all other issues in the area of nutrition and food security, as well as international trade of foods. Food exports from the region are currently worth some US$66 billion, or 12% of the world's total food trade, and this figure could increase rapidly over the coming decades if food s afety and quality standards are improved. Despite these well-known and important reasons, many challenges remain to improving food safety in the region. The countries of the region recognize the importance of developing practical actions for capacity building to overcome these challenges and to promote food safety in the region. Accordingly, following the guidance of the FAO/WHO governing bodies, in line with the suggestions made by the participants at the first and second Joint FAO/WHO Global Fora of Food Safety Regulators (GF1-Morocco, January 2002 and GF2- Thailand, October 2004) and the kind invitation of the Government of Costa Rica, FAO and WHO jointly convened the first Regional Conference on Food Safety for the Americas and the Caribbean in San José, Costa Rica from 6 to 9 December 2005. The Conference brought together over 175 delegates from 32 member countries of the Americas and the Caribbean and observers from 14 international governmental and non-governmental organizatio ns to discuss food safety issues in the region, under the general theme of “Practical Actions to Promote Food Safety”. The participants at the Conference recommended a series of practical actions to the member countries and to FAO and WHO to strengthen food safety systems in the region. It was generally recognized by the participants that although the convening of the Conference itself was successful, its true success can only be measured by the degree of implementation of the recommended actio ns of the Conference and the improved safety of foods produced and consumed in the region.
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