Improving Food Safety Systems Globally - FAO Capacity Building Activities
Mary Kenny
Food Quality and Standards Service
Nutrition and Consumer Protection Division
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
FAO'S Food Safety Page
Outline of Presentation:
The FAO Mandate and Food Safety The Importance of Food Safety FAO Activities in Food Safety - Normative and Field FAO Capacity Building Activities.
The UN has stated that access to a safe and secure food supply is a basic human right.
What is the FAO mandate?
Food safety and food security are the heart of the FAO's mandate. In the FAO, we have many different departments. These include orestry, fishery, livestock, and others. At the FAO, we believe that it is not good enough simply to have food. Food must also be nutritious and safe. Food Security exists when all people at all times, have physical and social access to food.
Global Realities: Context/Challenges
There will be 1 billion hungry people in 2009, as estimated by the FAO. There are 1.8 million deaths and 4 billion cases globally attributed to diarrheal disease each year. In the USA, there are approximately 5,000 deaths from food-borne disease every year. Post harvest food losses are another serious problem, and can reach 15% or higher of possible yields. This food wastage is attributed to weaknesses in our methods of storing, handling, and transporting food. We in the USA have weak controls for safe quality foods.
When we discuss food safety hazards, what are we discussing?
We are discussing chemical and microbiological problems.
Biological hazards and chemical hazards are our primary concern. Biological hazards include zoonotic microorganisms, parasites, viruses in food, funguses, prions, giardia, and antimicrobial resistant microorganisms.
Chemical hazards include: pesticides, vet drugs, residues, and toxic metals. There are also persistent organic pollutants or POPS, which accumulate in the food chain. These include chemicals like-DDT, PCBs, dioxins, and furans. Naturally occuring toxins include aflatoxins in peanuts, ciguatoxin in coral fish, and biotoxins in filter-feeding shellfish. Radioactive isotopes (accidental release) are another chemical concern.
What are the sources of food safety hazards?
They include human and animal reservoirs, environmental sources, and food production practices.
The FAO is working to ensure a global reach on food and agriculture issues. The FAO is headquartered in Rome, and has regional and subregional offices in Cairo, Bangkok, Accra, Santiago, Harare, Tunis, Budapest, Barbados, and Apia. Other offices exist in the Africa region - in Addis Addaba, and in the Gabon in West Africa.
Our World:
Potential food safety hazards remain a challenge for the entire planet. Food safety is further complicated by the global nature of today's world. In North America, for example, a lot of our seafood is imported from Canada. To focus on food safety in today's complex world, we want to look at factors like:
The increasing volume and diversity of trade in foods.
An increasing population and demand for food.
Increasingly changing agricultural practice and climate.
Changing human/animal interactions.
Creating a system for more sophisticated detection and management of hazards. Changing hazards, like resistant microbes.
Implement greater public demands for health protection. Changing human behavior and ecology.
Our number one focus at the FAO is protecting the consumer and protecting health. We also consider climate change.
High Costs of Food Safety Incidents
The 2008 Melamine contamination of dairy products illustrates the dangers of unsafe foods. Due to the melamine contamination, the world was forced to contend with 6 deaths, 300,000 illnesses and 115 types of contaminated food products.
A recent example was the 2009 discovery of Salmonellosis in peanuts in the USA. The contaminated peanuts led to 9 deaths and 22,500 illnesses.
A Europen example was the dioxin contamination of Irish pork in 2008. The contamination forced the culling of 100,000 pigs. The culling meant the destruction of 125 million euro worth of food, and total economic losses in excess of US $1 billion for Ireland.
A recent African case involved a 2004 incidence of aflatoxin in maize in Kenya. This led to 317 cases and 125 deaths. Often people think aflatoxin related problems are chronic or long term. in this instance, because the maize was so heavily contaminated, there were lots of illnesses and deaths.
Impacts and Costs of Food Safety Problems
A decline in public health, loss of life, losses incurred by food companies, economic impact on farmers (peanut, pig, dairy), decreasing consumer confidence, and economic loss . Economic loss can derive from industry and government, food trade disruption, and food recalls.
Key Elements of FAO Work on Strengthening Food Safety?
The development of codex standards, Scientific Advice, and their use in national food control programmes.
Official food control programs include:
Government programs, using regulators and supporters to aid food producers and food industry.
A "farm to fork" approach.
A risk analysis and risk based approach for food control.
Communication with the consumer.
Best Practices in Food Industry
These are primarily responsible for...
Preventive measures throughout the food chain.
GAPs, GHP'S, HAACP.
The partnership between government and food industry (reorientation of roles).
Codex Alimentarius Commission: What is it?
The Codex Alimentarius Commission is a intergovernmental body.
"Codex Alimentarius" is Latin for Food Law. The Codex is then a set of global food standards.
The Commission was stablished 1961-63 by FAO and WHO (World Health Organization). Countries were starting to engage in more worldwide trade during this time, and needed one standard to aid the trading and movement of food. This is not to say that the Commission has successfully made everything harmonious, but that is the intention. The Codex Alimentarius Commission is headquartered in a yearly meeting in Rome and Geneva. In between the big annual meetings, there are about 20 food codex meetings a year on fish, meat, and other products. Membership in the Commission involves 180 countries and 1 organization, the European Community.
Objectives of the Codex Alimentarius:
The Codex Alimentarius has dual objectives:
Protecting consumer health.
Facilitating fair practices in food trade.
The coordination of all food standards work.
FAO/WHO Scientific Advice Programme:
The FAO/WHO work through this program to develop scientific advice. If we at the FAO think about food additives or pesticides and need to decide what is the safe level, we can't just pick a number. We have to do a study before we can act. Via the scientific advice program, we can bring together world experts to meet, discuss, and analyze the issues.
We produce ADI/MRL's for food additives, veterinary drug residues, and pesticides.
Risk Assessment of Microbiological Hazards in Foods
Microbiological hazards may be more of a challenge then chemical ones, and are thus important. We have a high global knowledge and awareness of the dangers of these organisms and their ability to cause much harm. Foods we once thought were safe, including,fresh produce like spinach, are leading to more and more challenges and hazards involving microbial hazards.
Other ad hoc issues include acrylamide, GMOs, and nanotechnology
Question from Kourtney Rusow:
We were just at EFSA - an opinion issuing body. They use metadata from companies or governments to whom they are issuing opinions. Do you at the FAO conduct primary research or not?
We do not. We work in a similar way to EFSA, in fact. We at the FAO and EFSA often have overlapping experts. The main difference is that we are at an international level and our scientific advice is the basis for coding standards. The EFSA is the fount for European Community policy. Our information and opinions will often be very much the same. We are trying to ensure that Codex and European Community levels of additives are the same. When we have a big meeting coming up, we issue a call for date or experts so we may have all the data needed for the meeting. Often we find the data and info is coming from developed countries, so we are helping developing countries develop data on their own issues like aflatoxin or so on. It is an ongoing work.
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