ACTIONS FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF FOOD SAFETY TECHNICAL COOPERATION PROGRAMMES
FAO and WHO have historically worked towards improving food safety along the entire food chain. A report on their activities in capacity building and in the provision of scientific advice was presented as Agenda items 3 and 4 during the 14th Session of the Codex Coordinating Committee for Latin America and the Caribbean in December 20046. Capacity building and the provision of technical assistance have been achieved through collaboration between international organizations, national governments, international and regional financial institutions and NGOs. Activities conducted include the following: 1) the evaluation of institutional structures, legislation/regulations, inspection and laboratory services, infrastructure and human resources and management systems, all for food control; and 2) formulation of recommendations for improvement and training of food control officers, food control managers, food inspectors and food analysts through seminars, workshops and study tours. FAO and WHO also prepare joint training manuals and guidelines such as the Guidelines for Strengthening National Food Control Systems (previously mentioned), Food Safety Risk Analysis Manual, Codex training package, HACCP for Small and Less Developed Businesses, etc.; provide support for the establishment and strengthening of National Codex Committees; and provide policy advice and assistance in the development of regulatory frameworks. FAO/WHO have also been working together to provide technical assistance to member states in the preparation of applications to the Codex Trust Fund.
FAO and WHO work to complement each other in order to ensure effective utilization of resources. They successfully organized the two Global Fora for Food Safety Regulators in Marrakech, Morocco in 2002 and Bangkok, Thailand in 2004. Many other joint activities have been implemented as described in CAC/28 INF.5. This Regional Conference on Food Safety for the Americas and the Caribbean is another collaborative effort between the two sister organizations.
Other joint regional activities include the following: support to the FAO/WHO Coordinating Committee for Latin America and the Caribbean (CCLAC); FAO/PAHO pre-CCLAC workshops on national involvement in Codex, national food control systems and implementation of risk analysis; and cooperation in the Inter-American Network of Food Analysis Laboratories (INFAL)/Red Interamericana de Laboratorios de Análisis de Alimentos (RILAA), OIRSA, IICA and other relevant agencies are invited to attend the workshops and other activities.
In developing countries, the limited financial resources are frequently directed towards the sectors which according to the governments represent the country's more urgent priorities, such as other health problems, education, housing, sanitation, food acquisition and defense. Issues relating to food safety are not really appreciated and they are generally a low priority within public health programmes since FBDs are considered mild diseases with spontaneous remission. The fact that they have serious consequences on health as well as on trade and economy is often neglected.
The lack of adequacy of food safety services to the present environment and to new challenges is affecting the ability of countries to face the impact on public health, take advantage of opportunities of emerging markets, meet international sanitary and phytosanitary standards, and comply with international demands and agreements. This was more evident in developing countries, which, in spite of having received and allotted resources to better national systems, have not always met the desired goals.
In 2001, the Inter American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) estimated the effectiveness of national services in the Americas to comply with or benefit from the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) Agreement was less than 40% on average; likewise, estimate institutional sustainability was around 20% on average7.
Similarly, in 2003 PAHO made an evaluation using the document FAO/WHO “Assuring Safety and Quality: Guidelines for Strengthening National Food Control Systems”, a FAO/WHO joint publication, as reference frame. The study highlights that 18 countries have a level of development in their food safety systems ranging from 25% to 60%, with a global average of 44% and 48%, respectively. It should be noticed that such countries do not even reach an average of 50% in the conditions of the proposed system. Twelve countries have a global average of development level ranging from 58% to 81%. The study is posted on www.panalimentos.org/evaluacion/evaluacion.sia.espaniol/index.html.
In 2002 and 2003, FAO's Food Quality and Standards Service developed, administered, and compiled questionnaires for capacity building in food safety from 99 participants at five pre-Codex workshops, representing at least 48 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Southwest Pacific, and the Near East. Most of the respondents work in government and have access to the Internet at work. Workshops and seminars were indicated as the most effective food safety training activities (91% of respondents) and Quality Assurance Systems/HACCP/ GHP/ GAP was the area of food safety that respondents most often listed as requiring strengthening in their country. Specific subjects requiring strengthening within each prioritization area were also recorded. The complete results of the survey are available from the FAO website at: ftp://ftp.fao.org/es/esn/food/CB_questionaire.pdf. These evaluations provide complementary data to enable improved technical cooperation in food safety and quality.
This is partly explained by the low investment of national governments, that normally allot 5% of their national budget to agriculture and, from this amount, only 5 to 10% is allotted to agricultural health8. Regarding external funding, generally coming from loans, they are difficult to estimate, but they range between 0,2% and 2% of the total amount these organisms lend for agriculture9.
Therefore, the main tools for the countries to promote modernization of national services are technical assistance and investment projects. Traditionally, investment projects have concentrated on infrastructure such as the establishment of quarantine posts and creation of diagnostic labs, and equipment acquisition.
Discussions on the issue of technical cooperation have emerged in different international fora. On the one hand, developed countries have showed concern for the reduced impact that the technical cooperation offered by them and by cooperation agencies has had in developing and less developed countries. On the other hand, and in spite of the important number of resources and actions assigned to date, developing countries continue claiming higher cooperation and the adequate implementation of the concept of technical cooperation.
In order to provide sustainability and guarantee the success of initiatives carried out to improve the capacities inherent to services, they should be based on identification, analysis and prioritization of needs. Hence, it could be very useful for countries to count with an instrument to characterize the performance of institutional and functional capacities of services, in order to continuously monitor improvement and define strategic actions in technical cooperation. There are initiatives such as the so-called Performance, Vision and Strategy (PVS) instrument for veterinary services10 between IICA and the OIE. Besides, IICA and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) elaborated the PVS for food safety national services and, in a similar fashion it was elaborated for national phytosanitary protection organisms.
FAO has developed a manual on Guidelines to Assess Capacity Building Needs in Official Food Control Systems, as a tool to assist national governments to identify their most pressing needs in the area of food control. The manual is currently undergoing pilot testing and will be widely distributed in English, French and Spanish. FAO has also developed a Biosecurity needs assessment tool, which allows countries to evaluate their needs for implementing a holistic approach to food safety, animal and plant health. A Biosecurity Risk Analysis manual has also been developed to assist countries in utilizing risk analysis across these three sectors. Both of these Biosecurity tools have been peer reviewed and will be pilot tested and published as a complete package in early 200611.
As part of its Technical Cooperation Project (TCP) programme, FAO has implemented a number of national projects to assist the countries of the region in improving various aspects of their food control system. In addition, a number of regional projects to strengthen the national Codex committees in the region have been implemented, including Codex training courses in each of the countries of the region. FAO, at times jointly with WHO, has also conducted numerous workshops on food control systems, risk analysis, and other aspects of food safety. Through these workshops and field projects, FAO has assisted countries to conduct a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis of their food control situation, resulting in a concrete, practical vision of their regional and national needs in food safety12.
In this way, a set of harmonized tools is available, which helps the countries to establish the current level of performance, reach a shared vision between the public and the private sectors, establish priorities and facilitate strategic planning.
Recently, OIRSA and the member countries have elaborated a harmonized regional strategic plan and national strategic plans for the application of sanitary and phytosanitary measures corresponding to the 2006–2010 period, which integrate the actions and the economic resources necessary for the harmonization of agrosanitary and food safety measures. The execution of plans implies the participation of productive sectors related to different activities, as well as of other entities of the public and academic sector.
The participation of international cooperation in this issue involves facilitating the process of modernization and updating of national services in the countries and the region through different actions. Beginning by providing the countries with a guide of fundamental competencies the services should contemplate. Promoting the training of leaders who could generate and sustain this process of continuous improvement and adaptation to the new environment. Showing the complementary nature of the different technical areas and supporting their process of continuous knowledge. Supporting the countries in learning about and taking advantage of the SPS Agreement and helping them to recognize that the economic factor is not a limiting factor. In turn, the countries should seek the sustainability of their services and the actions they carry out to reinforce them, by means of public-private alliances.
Strengthening the epidemiological surveillance of food-borne diseases
FBD epidemiological surveillance is a key component of any system of food safety which provides fundamental information on the kind of food involved in outbreaks, human groups at risk, practices leading to contamination, development and survival of causative agents in food, and places where food is often inadequately handled. This data is essential for the design of effective management programmes; it also allows monitoring changes in FBD epidemiology and identification of new pathogens, food patterns and habits, which may represent a risk for public health. An epidemiological surveillance programme should provide the necessary information to validate the efficacy of national food controls and the rapid response to FBD outbreaks.
Epidemiological surveillance is the base to formulate national strategies for the reduction of risks related to contaminated food consumption. Early detection of recent problems posed by food, detailed and precise knowledge of the nature and the level of food-borne diseases is a previous condition for the adoption of measures aimed at lowering such levels. Therefore, the current shortage of reliable data on FBDs in most countries is the major obstacle to carry out preventative interventions based on information.
An epidemiological surveillance system integrating epidemiology and inspection services and FBD surveillance laboratories at local level will allow to associate FBDs with consumption of contaminated food. This line of action is adequately framed within the development of the concept of public health surveillance, where all international organization may interact. For example, FAO, IICA, OIRSA with their actions at the level of primary production and strengthening of food safety systems of the countries, interact with PAHO experience to strengthen epidemiological surveillance systems.
Improving the capacity for effectively managing risks with the use of preventative approaches
In food safety, inequities are dramatically marked between developed countries which have expanded their capacity to protect the population from exposure to microorganisms and chemical substances in food, and developing countries which have many priorities competing in their health agendas, and where food safety is not recognized as a crucial issue for the health of their population, especially because consumers do not see the importance of the availability of safe food. In developing countries, the consumption of artisanal food is common, there is less availability of processed food, large volumes of fresh food are commercialized in traditional markets, and food consumed outside the household is typically prepared by street-vendors. Most concerns about food safety are related to inadequate use of agricultural chemical substances, inadequate storage, lack of food inspection, absence of infrastructure such as running water and adequate refrigeration and lack of awareness regarding food safety and hygiene. The technical cooperation agenda of all the organisms working on this issue interacts promoting consumers education (WHO programme of the five keys for food safety), building capacities in the areas of good hygiene practices and hazard analysis and critical control points (FAO; PAHO, OIRSA and IICA training programmes).
Food safety in the regulatory framework of the countries
The Codex Alimentarius Commission, a joint FAO/WHO body whose secretariat is headquartered at FAO in Rome, works to establish international food standards and related texts13. The aim of the Codex Alimentarius Commission is to protect the health of consumers and to ensure fair practices in the food trade. The WTO SPS Agreement, which seeks to enable countries to protect human, animal or plant life or health in their country while ensuring that such standards do not act as an unjustified trade barrier, recognizes Codex standards as benchmarks for international trade. The WTO Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Agreement, which works to ensure that regulations, standards, testing and certification procedures for all products do not create unnecessary obstacles to trade, also refers to the use of international standards. Participation by individual countries in the work of Codex had proved difficult due to cost and capacity constraints. This greater acceptance of Codex standards, as well as the establishment of the FAO/WHO Codex Trust for Enhanced Participation in Codex, has increased the interest of countries in the activities of the Codex Alimentarius Commission. Preparation and presentation of country positions on issues often require a great deal of effort so WHO and FAO have developed a training package on the work and procedures of Codex to assist member states. Countries in the region do not only need to be physically present in Codex meetings, but they also need assistance to provide relevant data to the Codex system and to take an active part in the standard setting process. Strengthening of regional capacity building efforts in order to foster regional cohesiveness that will allow all countries of the region to have a common and more effective voice is paramount. In view of the fact that national standards are often dictated by trading partners whose standards may be too stringent, member states could consider the application of regional standards for levels of contaminants in foods.
FAO and WHO also work together through expert bodies such as the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives and Contaminants (JECFA), the Joint FAO/WHO Meeting on Pesticide Residues (JMPR), the Joint Expert Meetings on Microbiological Risk Assessment (JEMRA) to provide scientific advice to Codex member countries.
AO has implemented technical cooperation projects in all countries in the South and Central American region, as well as workshops to assist countries in improving their understanding of and participation in Codex.
FAO, WHO-PAHO, IICA and OIRSA work by strengthening the participation of the countries in the elaboration of norms, guidelines and recommendations of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, supporting the active participation of the countries in the task of the Commission and its subsidiary organs. The Codex has elaborated many international norms on food safety, and generally the countries have used them in their national legislation. The elaboration of international norms based on health and their adoption by some countries will improve food safety both at the domestic market and at global level. In many countries, effective food control is hindered by the existence of a fragmented legislation, multiple jurisdictions and weak supervision and application. The existence of national control systems and food regulation is essential to guarantee the health of the population of the country. FAO and PAHO support the Coordinating Committee of the Codex Alimentarius for Latin American and the Caribbean (CCLAC) with the organization of technical workshops and supporting the development of strategies to encourage the countries of the Region for actively participating in the work of the Codex Alimentarius. Within the wide frame of food safety, PAHO has created the Regional Information System of Food Legislation - LEGALIM, in order to provide the countries of the region with a system whose database allows saving and processing full texts of their food legislation, updated and in force. IICA has created a database of official organisms which certify food exports by country, according to their source and degree of food processing; this information is available via the informative bulletin AGROSALUD14.
FAO has developed the International Portal on Food Safety, Animal and Plant Health (www.ipfsaph.org) in cooperation with Codex, IPPC, OIE, WHO and WTO to provide easy access to international standards and other official information from partner international agencies. The Portal also provides a view on national legislation and related texts from the EU, USA, and smaller data sets from a pilot group of developing countries (24,000 records in November 2005). The latest version includes up-to-date information on the Codex-established maximum residue limits (MRLs) for veterinary drugs and pesticides, as well as the JECFA and JMPR evaluations of these substances; navigation in English, French and Spanish; and a “help desk” for questions users may have regarding the portal.
A regional portal for the Latin America and the Caribbean region is also under development. The “Portal Regional de Inocuidad y Sanidad Agroalimentaria (PRISA)” will exclusively focus on food safety and animal and plant health concerns of the region. It will include national information on standards, regulations and legislation, notifications, organizations and contact points, as well as relevant news and events from across the region. The prototype version of the system will be launched at the end of the first quarter 2006, and the site will be available in English, Portuguese and Spanish.
Consumer Education
An especially important role of the food industry in assuring food safety is communication with consumers. The industry widely uses integrated communication including advertising, marketing and product promotion. Product labelling is another means of communication that allows the consumer to make informed decisions on products. Labels must therefore avoid making false and misleading health claims. Advertising and labelling must not only be used as one-way communication systems but must allow informed consumer feed-back to food producers and distributors.
The governments, the industry and the academic sector will share the responsibility of conceiving and applying risk analysis systems that make emphasis on risk communication. Consumers should not be passive and it is necessary to encourage them to more deeply study the questions of food safety, as governments and educational institutions usually do. This is particularly true if the new problems are related to hygiene practices adopted at households or to other measures that may have an important function in FBD prevention.
In this regard, it is essential to promote the participation of the community so that it feels identified with the problem and incorporates desirable behaviors that contribute to food safety to its health culture. Therefore, it has been suggested that technical cooperation in socialcommunication and education should be based on structuring of models, where the five keys for food safety proposed byWHO is a key element both for the establishment of campaigns and for educational materials; from there, a joint work of the agencies to be implemented at the level of the countries should be developed. Establishing work relationships allows the development of communication pieces with educational messages promoting adequate food handling.
Consumer groups are invited to participate in Codex activities, all relevant food safety workshops, electronic discussion forum, etc. In June 2005, FAO/WHO facilitated a meeting of consumer non-governmental organizations at which the Guidelines for Consumer Organizations to Promote National Food Safety Systems was developed. Representatives of consumer groups are invited to participate, as appropriate, in expert and technical consultations related to food safety.
CONCLUSIONS
It is imperative to strengthen the technical cooperation articulated in the field of food safety so that every country in the Region, and in other Regions, could be supported for the generation of national capacities according to the abovementioned demands.
At the same time, international organisms should act as linking and consultation centers based on promotion of updated and relevant information and effective training, for the resolution of problems. They should finally be able to facilitate bilateral and multilateral cooperation to make possible agreements, joint projects, and missions, viable through mobilization of trained human resources of the countries and, only when necessary, experts in specific areas. All this aligned with the optimization of the use of resources according to the cost/benefit analysis.
FAO, WHO-PAHO, IICA and OIRSA should support the member countries to avoid superposition and duplications and promote the implementation of national systems for food safety with a comprehensive approach including every food along the entire food chain.
Assuring food safety is a shared responsibility between all stakeholders, especially civil society, consumers and industry, that must have a common vision in order to succeed. In the Americas and the Caribbean, guaranteeing food safety involves activities conducted by several agencies and institutions whose mandates are often not clearly defined. This has resulted in fragmentation of the food control system and inefficient use of resources. Cooperation and coordination at national, subregional, regional and international levels is required to improve effectiveness and thus protection of the health of the consumer and opportunities for trade.
6 An update of FAO's capacity building activities in the region is available as CRD 32.
| Agenda Item 8 | (AC 05/6) Part A |
CAPACITY BUILDING IN THE REGULATION AND SAFETY ASSESSMENT OF
FOODS DERIVED FROM MODERN BIOTECHNOLOGY -
A CANADIAN PERSPECTIVE
(Prepared by Canada)
Introduction
1. Modern biotechnology involves the application of techniques that overcome the natural physiological reproductive or recombinant barriers and that are not techniques used in traditional breeding and selection (e.g. recombinant DNA technology, direct injection of nucleic acids, cell fusion). Using these techniques, researchers can take a single gene from a microorganism, plant or animal cell and insert it into another microorganism, plant or animal cell to give it a desired characteristic, such as a plant that is resistant to a specific pest or disease1.
2. Genetic modifications that can change the agronomic, production, processing or nutritional characteristics of microorganisms, plants and animals are now routinely achieved using the techniques of modern biotechnology. However, the wide variety of manipulations possible through genetic modification, and the potential for the introduction of toxic compounds, unexpected secondary effects and changes in the nutritional and toxic characteristics of the food product requires that a thorough pre-market safety assessment be undertaken.
3. Several countries have put in place requirements and procedure for the pre-market assessment of genetically modified organisms and foods derived from them. In the context of food safety, such requirements are based upon scientific principles developed through expert international consultation with agencies such as the, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO), the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and, more recently, the Joint FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius Commission, which elaborates international food standards and guidelines.
4. In July 2003, the Codex Alimentarius Commission adopted three documents, developed by the Codex Ad Hoc Intergovernmental Task Force on Foods Derived from Biotechnology, that relate to foods derived from biotechnology. The Principles for the Risk Analysis of Foods Derived from Modern Biotechnology2 lays out a framework for undertaking risk analysis on the safety and nutritional aspects of foods derived from biotechnology and is supported by two guidelines that describe a detailed approach to conducting the safety assessments of these foods: 1) Guideline for the Conduct of Food Safety Assessment of Foods Derived from Recombinant-DNA Plants1 and 2) Guideline for the Conduct of Food Safety Assessment of Foods Produced using Recombinant-DNA Microorganisms4. These internationally agreed upon documents reflect the expertise and experience of those countries, including Canada, with a history of regulating products of biotechnology. Non-governmental organizations such as Greenpeace and Consumers International participated in the development of these international standards and endorsed their adoption.
5. With regard to capacity building, it is important to note that the Codex Principles for the Risk Analysis of Foods Derived from Modern Biotechnology states that “efforts should be made to improve the capability of regulatory authorities, particularly those of developing countries, to assess, manage and communicate risks, including enforcement, associated with foods derived from modern biotechnology or to interpret assessments undertaken by other authorities or recognized expert bodies, including access to analytical technology. In addition, capacity building for developing countries either through bilateral arrangements or with assistance of international organizations should be directed toward effective application of these principles.”
6. Over the past several years, Canada has led and participated in a number of capacity building initiatives aimed at sharing our regulatory and safety assessment experience with countries that have requested guidance in this area. Training workshops were conducted to provide regulators in these countries with information on the most recent advances in the evaluation of foods derived from biotechnology based on the experiences of countries that have conducted safety assessments of these products. The present document will focus on how these capacity building initiatives have been successful in promoting a harmonized international regulatory approach for foods derived from biotechnology and describe future work being planned in order to further our outreach efforts to different regions around the world.
A Canadian Experience in Capacity Building
7. Recent technological advances in the field of foods derived from biotechnology have been especially challenging for developing countries in assessing the potential impact on their populations. Some developing countries have shown significant interest in acquiring the technical knowledge and skills to better manage the evaluation and regulatory control of these foods. Due to the complex nature of these assessments it was felt that hands-on training workshops using actual case studies would be highly beneficial in demonstrating how the concepts and principles developed internationally can be practically applied to assessing the safety of foods derived from modern biotechnology.
8. This led to Canada developing a number of training modules on the safety assessment of foods derived from modern biotechnology. Since 1999, Canadian officials have delivered capacity building workshops to over twenty countries, providing regulators with hands-on experience in the food safety assessment of foods derived from genetically modified organisms. While the original modules were based on Health Canada's Guidelines for the Safety Assessment of Novel Foods5, more recent case studies reflect the risk analysis principles and safety assessment guidelines recently endorsed by the Codex Alimentarius Commission.
9. Basing these workshops on the internationally agreed-upon Codex principles and guidelines has given Canada the opportunity to co-deliver capacity building workshops in collaboration with other national food safety authorities, such as the Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA), and the Health Council of the Netherlands. In addition, close collaboration with multilateral organizations such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the International Life Sciences Institute, and the OECD, has allowed these capacity building efforts to have a regional focus by facilitating the participation of officials from several neighbouring countries in any given workshop.
10. More recently, FAO, in collaboration with WHO, has invited Canada and the OECD to work on a capacity building project. The objective of the project is to develop a standardized training package to assist countries in implementing the internationally accepted risk analysis principles and safety assessment approach for foods derived from modern biotechnology. This project will involve training regional experts (i.e., train-the-trainer) to deliver workshops in their home countries.
Conclusions and Lessons Learned
11. The approach to the safety assessment of genetically modified (GM) foods taken by Canada is currently applied by regulatory agencies around the world in countries such as the European Union member states, Australia/New Zealand, Japan and the United States. This safety assessment process is consistent with the international standard for the safety assessment of GM foods adopted by the Codex Alimentarius Commission.
12. The safety assessment principles and criteria used by workshop participants are based on the Codex Guideline for the Conduct of Food Safety Assessment of Foods Derived from Recombinant-DNA Plants. This promotes a harmonized internationally accepted approach to the safety assessment of GM foods.
13. Greater success was achieved when training workshops were facilitated in collaboration with different regulatory organizations. Workshops co-delivered with FSANZ, USFDA and European Union regulatory authorities promoted a more consistent and predictable international assessment approach.
14. Capacity building workshops provide participants with information on the most recent advances in the evaluation of foods derived from modern biotechnology based on the experiences of countries that have conducted safety assessments of these products. Properly trained regulators can enhance the safety of foods thereby improving the health of its consumers and ensuring the safety of foods entering international trade.
15. It is apparent from these workshops that some developing countries would benefit from further assistance to establish the technical capacity to conduct safety assessments of GM food products. The development of a standardized training package by the FAO will ensure consistency and uniformity in the application of international standards and will meet a vital need for delivery of regional training programmes.
1 Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety. Available at http://bch.biodiv.org/about/default.shtml.
| Agenda Item 9 | (AC 05/7) |
THE CONSUMER: ACTIVE PARTICIPATION
IN FOOD SAFETY COMMUNICATION
(Prepared by Consumers International)
Introduction
Consumers International is a global federation of consumer organizations working to realize consumer rights throughout the world. Food insecurity and the assurance of food quality and safety are the most pressing problems currently facing the consumer movement. Selected indicators prompting our concern are that:
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that there were 53 million people living in a condition of undernourishment in Latin America in 2003.1
The economic and political reforms that have been introduced in the region since the 1980s have not reduced the levels of rural poverty that had previously accumulated in Latin America and the Caribbean. On the contrary, the scale and incidence of rural poverty has slightly increased in the region and most countries.2 Studies indicate that rural poverty in Latin America worsened between 1980 and 1999, with the rural poor increasing in number from 73 to 77 million. The most vulnerable social groups are women heads of household, indigenous groups and the rural elderly and children, who cannot really be considered as consumers. A large number of rural households therefore live in a state of nutritional vulnerability.
The absence of healthcare leads to high morbidity and mortality, which impacts on the quality of life and production capacity of individuals and can have serious repercussions on a country's development. Despite government efforts, consumer living conditions are still inadequate as a high percentage of homes lack proper water and sanitation services, which has serious implications for their health and nutritional status.
There are also problems of safety of the food they consume, with some 5 500 outbreaks of food-borne disease in the Americas in the last five years, according to the Pan American Institute for Food Protection and Zoonoses (INPPAZ). Food sold in the street often fails to comply with food quality and safety assurance standards. Other aspects impacting negatively on consumers are the contraband of food products and misleading advertising.
Consumers International (CI) and its member organizations in the region have been working to promote the right to food as a basic right of all consumers, with food security and the assurance of food safety seen as fundamental principles. CI has worked for many years to achieve these objectives through:
All these activities seek to ensure that government decisions safeguard consumer interests. These and advocacy actions are and have been crucial elements in the democratic process of government decision-making.
It is important to highlight Consumers International's reaffirmation of the centrality of wholesome and safe food to the development of the human capabilities that underpin any process of welfare or modernization. That is why CI's Office for Latin America and the Caribbean has adopted participation, representation and food safety advocacy as priority lines of action, working actively in the Pan American Commission for Food Safety (COPAIA), which is a collective effort of all Member States of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), in the Codex Alimentarius and, through its member organizations, in the food safety programmes of the countries of Latin America.
Consumer participation in the Pan American Commission for Food Safety (COPAIA)
The consumers' movement of Latin America and the Caribbean has been participating actively in the meetings of COPAIA and its special working groups since May 2001, when the Commission was established. Work under COPAIA has enabled CI to step up its food safety activities, to consolidate its formal relations and to work in a more coordinated manner with PAHO, in accordance with Resolution №134.R7 of the 134th Session of the Executive Committee held in June 2004. In practical terms, this has led to a series of regional training initiatives in food security and food safety carried out by CI-ROLAC in the Dominican Republic (September 2002), Ecuador (March 2003), Barbados (April 2004) and Colombia (August 2004), with technical cooperation from PAHO and FAO. These activities aimed to strengthen the nutritional expertise of the leaders of consumer organizations and allied associations in the countries of the region, placing an emphasis on food safety and an integrated “farm to consumer” approach, and to promote the World Health Organization's Five keys to ensuring food safety.
The food safety campaign initiated by CI-ROLAC “Wholesome food, safe food: responsible consumers” receives technical cooperation from PAHO/INPPAZ with whom it has a comprehensive work relationship from planning and development in the countries of the region.
The first phase of implementation of the pilot campaign was conducted in the first half of 2004 in Uruguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and the Dominican Republic, during which the consumer organizations of these countries intensified their actions, paying particular attention to food-borne diseases, street food and consumer participation in the Codex Alimentarius.
The second phase of implementation has been in full operation since May 2005, with the involvement of consumer organizations in Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic and Colombia. This has continued to provide training and information to consumer organizations in each country, with a focus on WHO's five keys to ensuring food safety, consumers food rights, the quality and safety of water, street food and consumer involvement in national safety programmes. Each workshop benefited from technical cooperation from the ministries of health and agriculture, PAHO, the municipalities and Consumers International, and included the active participation of civil society organizations.
The campaign web page (www.panalimentos.org/consumidores/acamp.htm) and information materials produced with technical cooperation from PAHO/INPPAZ are also fundamental tools for consumer training and information.
Selected campaign outputs:
Organizations in Peru and Bolivia act as citizen watchdogs over the sale of questionable or forbidden products failing to comply with health or Codex standards. They report the matter to the competent authorities in defense of consumer rights and have businesses modify or recall their products in protection of consumer health.
SEDEC-BOLIVIA has promoted Bolivian standard 329007 on the “Code of hygienic practices for the preparation, distribution and storage of food in hospital centres”. Bolivia's Ministry of Health has issued a resolution making this code and its implementation guide mandatory for the country's healthcare sector.
ASPEC-PERU oversees the “Multidisciplinary programme for the promotion of food security and safety” which was established at the latest event to be organized under the “Wholesome food, safe food: responsible consumers” campaign.
FUNDECOM-DOMINICAN REPUBLIC provides the consumer delegation to COPAIA, in the same way as SEDECO-BOLIVIA and CUA-URUGUAY who attended the meeting held in Mexico in April 2005.
Consumer participation in the Codex Alimentarius
Codex Alimentarius standards have a strong potential impact in Latin America, notably because of their implications for the international trade in foodstuffs.
CI's project to strengthen the involvement of consumer organizations in Codex processes has helped raise consumer influence at national, regional and international level. Prominent achievements include the technical briefing of leaders of consumer organizations in the region, the involvement of many new consumer organizations in Codex work and the assistance given to make them more active at national and international level.
However, despite these efforts, a study conducted by CI at the end of 2002 among 17 consumer organizations in 16 countries revealed that 35.3% of organizations considered their participation in Codex work at national level to be poor or unsatisfactory while 29.4% declared it to be non-existent, making a total 64.7% unsatisfied with the level of participation granted consumers in Codex activities. A recent study by Bolivia's Consumer Education Service (SEDECO) and CI, released in August 2004, indicates that of 19 Latin American consumer organizations working in the area of food, 90% report a priority focus on foods derived from biotechnology, followed by food safety, food security and responsible production and consumption.
The same study shows that their food safety work is still not integrated; they focus primarily on Codex standards and concentrate on selected committees, such as that on food hygiene, labelling, pesticide residues and residues of veterinary drugs in foods.
The consumer organizations of the countries of the region have participated in training workshops held in the framework of national and subregional FAO technical cooperation, projects to strengthen the management of Codex Contact Points and National Codex Committees in Brazil, Chile, Argentina and Uruguay and more recently the countries of Central America, Panama and the Dominican Republic www.rlc.fao.org/prior/comagric/codex/rla0065/0065.htm, the Andean Region countries (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela), www.rlc.fao.org/prior/comagric/codex/rla2904/default.htm and Paraguay www.rlc.fao.org/prior/comagric/codex/par2801/default.htm. These projects have boosted the involvement of consumer organizations in National Codex Committees and their technical subcommittees.
Successful Codex work includes that of the Peruvian consumer organization ASPEC which was appointed to serve as technical secretariat of the committee on food labelling of its country. It has participated in international meetings such as that of the Committee on Food Hygiene. SEDECO and CODEDCO are involved in the National Codex Committee of Bolivia and various technical subcommittees. They were also in the Bolivian delegation to meetings of the Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses and the Committee on General Principles and the recent meeting of the Codex Coordinating Committee for Latin America and the Caribbean held in Buenos Aires in December 2004.
The Trust Fund set up by FAO/WHO to bolster participation in Codex, especially of developing countries, has been widely publicized by CI among consumer organizations to encourage them to lobby their governments and the Codex focal points for their rightful participation.
While progress has been made and there is now a greater involvement of consumer organizations in the work of Codex, the situation is not uniform throughout the region. Consumer participation is still manifestly inequitable and is inadequate when compared to the involvement of other players in the food chain, including at national level.
Recommendations
Consumers International and its member organizations have constantly voiced their concerns and recommendations to governments in their position papers for COPAIA, their surveys, their findings and their reports on leader training and events carried out under the “Wholesome food, safe food: responsible consumers” campaign. Important among these are that:
Consumers should be actively involved in the establishment of national food safety policies throughout the process, from planning, through implementation, to evaluation.
Governments should promote the formation and/or consolidation of a cross-sector national commission, including consumers and tasked with appraising its food safety programme and identifying regulatory and implementational inadequacies, so that solutions can be found for more effective programme management with priority given to the protection of consumer health.
The need to raise the involvement of civil society in the surveillance, prevention and control of food-borne diseases and to establish mechanisms of dissemination and active consumer participation in surveillance and warning systems.
Governments and intergovernmental agencies should work increasingly with consumer organizations in designing, promoting and implementing food safety education campaigns that emphasize the prevention of food-borne diseases and healthy consumer habits and that are especially geared towards the at-risk populations that include the poor, children, pregnant women, the elderly and persons with deficient immunity systems.
Foods not meeting quality and safety standards and rejected on international markets should not be made available for domestic consumption. Governments should pay special attention to the control of imports, exports and foods for domestic consumption to avoid exercising double standards.
Governments, intergovernmental organizations and cooperation agencies should be encouraged to support consumer organizations in the process of institutional consolidation, capacity building, the formulation, financing and sponsoring of food safety projects, and in promoting healthy and responsible consumption.
Governments should promote mechanisms to ensure that consumer organizations are actively involved in the formulation and/or updating of food safety regulations.
Consumer involvement in countries receiving inputs from the FAO/WHO Trust Fund should be monitored to enhance their participation in the formulation of Codex standards.
Food safety policies should exist as public policies and governments should demonstrate their explicit political will to reinforce and modernize control programmes. As related government policies regrettably tend to be affected by changes in government, there is a need for public policies that will guarantee the continuity of processes, with the allocation of added technical and economic resources for these to develop effectively.
The design and/or updating of related policies - aimed at helping achieve the Millennium Development Goals within the established time frames - requires an early assurance of political support and the active participation of civil society and consumers. A dynamic technical approach needs to be applied and socio-economic aspects, such as poverty and culture, need to be taken into consideration to avoid such policies becoming barriers to the implementation of programmes to ensure the food security and food safety of the consumers of Latin America and the Caribbean.
