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| Agenda Items 5-9 | Conference Room Document 18 English only |
FAO/WHO Regional Conference on Food Safety for Asia and the Pacific
Seremban, Malaysia, 24-27 May 2004
Country Overview on food safety
(People's Democratic Republic of Laos)
In the Lao People's Democratic Republic, health is a major component of the government's approach to achieve economic growth and sustainability of its social progress. However, the country's state of health services at this time is severely challenged with the burden of diseases as reflected in high infant and maternal mortality rates, as well as high prevalence of diarrhea diseases, particularly in many areas where potable water supply and environmental sanitation conditions remain a problem.
In the year 2000, 12,440 cases of severe diarrhea were reported and 1,449 cases for dysentery, food poisoning, typhoid fever and hepatitis A. Helminthes infection is also a major health problem such as Opisthorchis, which is transmitted via consumption of contaminated raw fish.
The cost of food borne disease and food contamination to the Lao PDR community are great which affect personal suffering, loss of family income, community health costs and industrial productivity.
The Food and Drug Administration Commission (FDA) was established in 1991. It comprises member representatives from 7 ministries and a permanent bureau has been located in FDD, MOH which carries out all activities of the commission. This commission is chaired by Minister of Ministry of Health and is the body that ensures each of the key ministries are part of decision making processes related to food safety regulation and enforcement in Lao PDR.
Since 1995, Lao PDR has been a member of the Codex Alimentarius Commission and the function of Codex Contact Point is carried out by the Director General of Food and Drug Department which is responsible for all activities of Codex. Besides, the National Codex Committee was established and approved by the chairman of FDA Commission. This technical committee consists of members from related ministries such as Organization of Science Technology and Environment, Min. of Trade, Min. of Agriculture and Forestry, Min. of Industry and Handicraft, Min. of Health (Food and Drug Depart., Food and Drug Quality Control Center, Hygiene and Prevention Depart.). This committee is responsible for the implications of various standardization of food and food control issues of the international agencies and the region.
Food law has just been adopted by the National Assembly from this month and will be disseminated to the population of the whole country. Veterinary law has also been drafted and is under consideration. The
Food Safety Policy and Food Safety Programme has been developed by getting commitment of all key ministries to address food safety along the length of the food chain. The vision is setting as “Health for all through national economic development and safe food production and trade in safe food” and the goals are to reduce morbidity and mortality due to food borne illness and to promote safe food production and international and domestic trade in safe food.
Food safety has been controlled by using some regulations that have been established and developed throughout the whole food chain by different sectors such as:
Therefore various food control efforts from farm to table are undertaken and cooperate with MAF, MI, MOH, MC and network of each area in provincial and district level. Besides promoting food production with contribute to food exportation. The private sector is involved in controlling food by following the regulations, rules and codes of practice related to food safety.
The control of domestic foods products is a multidisciplinary activity which requires the involvement and cooperation of all concerned. Food quality is the responsibility of the Food and Drug Department of the Ministry of Health. Therefore, the issue of release certificates of quality and analysis for domestic foods product is related to some sectors such as Department of Industry, Department of Agriculture, Department of Livestock and Fishery and Laboratories.
For food importation, mostly all sanitary and phytosanitary certificates from exporter countries have been adopted by complying with the standards and Codex Alimentarius. Also, the manufacturer analysis is often accepted because of the limited capacity to analyze food in the country.
For food exportation, the organization for delivering certificates of food analysis and quality assurance certificate are the responsibility of the Food and Drug Department and Food and Drug Quality Control Center, Ministry of Health. And the releasing sanitary and phytosanitary of agricultural and animal production are responsible by Agriculture Department and Livestock and Fisheries Department, Ministry of Agriculture. Food quality has to analyze, comply with the requirements of the importation countries.
Food safety has been controlled by using some legislative documents from related ministries. Some existing regulations need review such as:
There were some necessary standards addressing a limited range of foods and are being reviewed in line with Codex wherever appropriate to food law. Several standards of zoonosis and contaminant residues of meat, milk, egg, fish and their products, fish and feed are formulated and also standards of producing in agriculture (Pre-Post harvest, Agro processing), technical guidelines on related crop production, fertilizers and pesticide use need to developed to improve a control measure and inspect in plant growing.
Quality assurance in food analysis is an essential component of food control that is an important tool for ensuring food quality and safety. In Lao PDR, there are two main laboratories located in Vientiane which are responsible for analyzing food samples collected by food inspectors.
Besides, the food analysis capabilities of staff are limited and the modern and appropriate equipment is still inadequate. In addition, chemicals, reagents, and standard methods of analysis are unavailable. These affect the quality assurance system. Therefore risk analysis has never been applied in food control.
In 1993-1994, FAO provided technical assistance to assist in capacity building related to food quality and safety measures such as establishing food legislation, food inspection and quality assurance training, food import and export inspection and certification system, food analysis, and laboratory management and quality assurance system. Since then, food control measures have been implemented.
Since 1994, WHO has provided a technical consultant to organize food safety courses and a workshop on Good and Manufacturing Practice and on Application of the HACCP system in controlling the safety of food industry for inspectors and producers. In addition, a training course on food inspection on Sanitation Standard Operation Procedures (SSOP) was recently conducted for inspectors in the whole country.
FDD require assistance from International agency to strengthen capacity to participate in multi-sectoral approach to food safety and food law dissemination, to prepare food hygiene regulations, draft necessary regulations and codes of practice, to enable participation in Codex process and to develop and disseminate food safety guidance documents for industry sectors. Besides, the study on contaminants of food and drinking water (supported by WHO) has been conducted in order to initiate data collection related to contamination in food and in drinking water and also to strengthen analytical capacity.
The Food and Drug Administration Commission has regularly taken the lead for communicating food safety regulations to stakeholders to exchange information and opinions concerning risk. However, the participation of concerned agencies is still limited.
Food producers do not understand the relationship between food sanitation measures and the quality of the final product. Therefore producers need to train on safety food practices in production, processing and distribution. Also, groups of agriculture producers and farms need to be established and regulations related to crop production such as seed/planting materials, fertilizer, pesticide and rearing pathogen and natural enemy for controlling pests need to be published and informed.
Furthermore, consumers generally do not appreciate the health implications of food safety and personal hygiene because of insufficient information on the rights with regard to safe food. Therefore, the consumer association is required to establish. Available information on food safety needs reviewing such as advertising, educational pamphlets, brochures, radio spots and the development of IEC material and mass media are required for rural population.
Many pathogens are being spread to and by an increasing variety of foods. Health statistics indicate that food borne disease is the major cause of morbidity. Diarrhea diseases, frequently associated with food borne agents, are one of the leading causes of mortality, particularly among children.
Regarding the report of the Hygiene and Prevention Department, outbreak of cholera/severe diarrhea in 1998, 1999, and 2000 was reported for illness in the number of 6110 cases, 10120 cases and 12440 cases respectively and was reported for death in the number of 109 cases, 453 cases and 520 cases respectively. In 2000 dysentery disease was reported for 803 cases and 4 deaths. In addition, the record of food and beverage analysis at Food and Drug Quality Control Center that E.Coli, Salmonella and Vibrio Cholera were found in various foods. Also, many studies on food contaminants were conducted and revealed various contaminants especially on microbiological contaminants.
The investigation team has been established in case of emergency to support and conduct immediate action to solve problems, advise farmers/producers, give public information in order to prevent the extension of food borne diseases.