GF 02/INF 11

Second fao/who global forum of food safety regulators

UNCC,
Bangkok, Thailand, 12-14 October 2004

INFORMATION NOTE

Why a Second Global Forum?

The right of everyone to have access to safe and nutritious food is affirmed in the opening statement of the 1996 Rome Declaration on World Food Security. The expansion of food trade resulting from the new trading environment brought about by the World Trade Organization (WTO) offers great opportunities, but increases the potential for the spread of food hazards across borders and continents. Most food safety issues now require collaborative international efforts to develop and implement integrated preventive strategies to reduce the burden of food borne diseases. Food safety issues are critical for both consumer protection and international food trade.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has always given high priority to programmes and activities to improve food safety and quality. The World Heath Organization (WHO) also has a continuing commitment to the fundamental principle that ensuring food safety is an essential activity and an integral part of any public health programme.

Within the framework of the Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme, the Codex Alimentarius Commission sets international food standards, as well as provisions of an advisory nature in the form of codes of practice, guidelines and other recommendations. Food safety regulators from all parts of the world need to exchange information and experiences on food safety management and on current food safety issues of potential importance to public health and international food trade.

This was the aim to the First Global Forum of Food Safety Regulators (GF-1) jointly convened by FAO and WHO, in Marrakesh, Morocco, in January 2002. It was the first opportunity for food safety regulators to meet together outside the usual negotiating circles to exchange information, ideas and plans. Their successful discussions covered a large range of issues under the theme Improving efficiency and transparency in food safety systems - Sharing experiences. The First Global Forum unanimously agreed that another Global Forum should be held in 2004 with, as its main theme, Building effective food safety systems.

In order to allow greater focus during discussions and to promote practical actions, the scope of the Second Global Forum of Food Safety Regulators (GF-2) has been deliberately limited. The two sub-themes and the topics to be discussed under each sub-theme have been selected in close consultation with both developed and developing member countries to ensure that they are indeed relevant to their needs.

Themes of the Second Global Forum

A food safety system involves government, private sector, consumer and other partners such as academia and media. Building effective food safety systems relies heavily on coordination, collaboration and communication of all activities. These activities include in particular control of food safety and epidemiological surveillance with accurate reporting which will be discussed under the two selected sub-themes:

1 - Strengthening official food safety control services

While it is the responsibility of industry to provide food which is safe and suitable for consumption by applying hygienic practices and controlling food hazards, governments must ensure that consumers are adequately protected from food borne illnesses or injuries caused by food and maintain confidence in internationally traded food. For this purpose, their official control services should be in a position to effectively enforce the relevant food safety regulations. This depends on the organizational structure and management of such official services. Methods to improve both organization and management will be discussed.

The first step for all countries is the development of a national strategy to define the responsibilities and tasks of different stakeholders (Topic paper 1.1). Food safety control should be carried out on the one hand by industry through the use of quality assurance systems such as HACCP, and on the other by official services. Both control activities should be supported by a comprehensive legal system (Topic paper 1.2). Since the effective application of HACCP by industry encounters various obstacles, the food inspector should foster its implementation and conduct risk based audit (Topic paper 1.4). Confidence in internationally traded food requires reliable import/export control and certification systems which implies the inspector's proficiency and the appropriate organization of the competent authority (Topic paper 1.5). The food inspector is the key person who has day-to-day contact with the food industry, trade and often the public and whose activities are increasingly diversified and sophisticated. He/She should be duly trained to carry out the various missions. Furthermore, managers of food control services should be appropriately trained for the purpose (Topic paper 1.3).

2 - Epidemio-surveillance of food borne disease and food safety rapid alert systems

The development of an effective food safety strategy must be based on a reliable system of information on the situation of food borne diseases. The implementation of effective food safety measures, in particular in case of emergency, requires accurate and up to date reporting which involves official services in charge of both human health and food control, as well as collaboration with other stakeholders. Furthermore, in order to be able to launch emergency response where needed, it is necessary to anticipate risks and develop a rapid alert system.

Each country should develop an effective system for monitoring potential hazards in the food supply and for surveillance of food borne diseases which is integrated so that links between food contamination and food borne diseases can be established and analyzed (Topic paper 2.1). Since food contamination has a high potential of spreading across borders, bodies in charge of epidemio-surveillance and food monitoring in the different countries should exchange information and collaborate in data collection, analysis and communication, in order to improve the relevance of their risk assessment and cooperate in risk management (Topic paper 2.2). The environment and new technologies may be at the origin of food hazards. These have become important issues for public health and international trade (Topic paper 2.3). Intentional food contamination, including bio-terrorism, is an overall potential risk which may have a local, regional or global dimension. Prevention and response are complex and multiform and need a comprehensive approach (Topic paper 2.4).

Participants of the Second Global Forum

• Senior food safety regulatory officials who participate in decision-making on the management of food safety issues or are responsible for food control management in their countries;
• Observers from interested international organizations, including the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Bank, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), the World Trade Organization and other agencies involved in international development;
• Observers from relevant international non-governmental organizations.

Where to obtain further information

The Second Global forum of Food Safety Regulators website can be found at the following address:

Working papers and Conference Room Documents (CRDs), as well as information documents, will be made available on the website as and when they are finalized.

Mail inquiries should be sent to the Joint FAO/WHO Secretariat as follows: