"Perspective" from your President

06.nov.08
International Association for Food Protection
Stan Bailey / IAFP President

Food safety is clearly an international issue. I have had the opportunity to visit
numerous countries in the past year, and everywhere I go there seems to be new food
safety challenges. The situations listed below are in no way meant to be
a comprehensive list but are meant to be representative of the complexity of the
global food safety issues we are facing.
As I write this column, I am in Korea helping to plan the Asian IAFP meeting for
next year. The past year in Korea has seen a significant increase in viral
infections associated with food. Later this week I will be attend-ing the China
International Food Safety and Quality meeting in Beijing where China is in the
middle of a significant food safety event. At this time, China's Health Ministry has
reported that four children have died and about 13,000 children have been
hospitalized, while another 40,000 have undergone outpatient treatment for illnesses
related to suspected melamine-tainted milk products. In the past year, there have
been numerous outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella , Vibrios , and Listeria
monocytogenes in the United States, Europe, and other countries.
No matter where they live, consumers and food safety professionals are concerned
about these outbreaks. The global nature of our food supply requires that we not
only pay attention to outbreaks in our country but also be concerned about imported
foods and food ingredients. An example of the large-scale import/export of foods can
be seen in the United States where sourcing of food ingredients and commodities from
outside of the US has grown dramatically. In 2007, over $70 billion worth of
foodstuffs were imported including large increases in imports from dev-eloping
countries (Mexico/Central America - $13.2B, South America - $9.0B, China/Asia -
$10.9B, Africa - $ 1.6B, M iddle East - $ 0.8B). Wit h the significant movement of
food around the globe, a contamination event in any country has the potential to
affect consumers in many other countries.
There are different concerns and considerations for developed and developing
countries food safety programs. Most developed countries think their food safety
systems and regulatory oversight are superior to that in other countries. There are
also situations where food safety regulations or standards have been used, fairly or
sometimes unfairly, as trade barriers. These divergent regulations and varied
political considerations highlight the need for harmonious reconciliation of
differences.
The challenge is to harmonize these numerous local regulations in a way that will
allow efficient import/export, while still protecting the food supply for all
consumers. How can harmonization of these regulations be achieved? First, the
regulations must be scientifically valid and defensible. Second, where there are
differences of opinion, the regulators in the different countries need to be able to
communicate effectively and work together to resolve their differences. When there
are impasses between countries, Codex Alimentarius may become involved in resolving
disputes. The Codex Alimentarius Commission was created in 1963 by FAO (Food and
Agriculture Organization) and WHO (World Health Organization) to develop food
standards, guidelines, and related texts such as codes of practice under the Joint
FAO/WHO Food S tandards Program. The main purposes of this Program are protecting
health of the consumers and ensuring fair trade practices in the food trade, and
promoting coordination of all food standards work undertaken by international
governmental and non-governmental organizations.
An even greater challenge to global food safety is the production and processing of
foods in developing countries where the food safety programs and regulatory
oversight is not as well developed. Because of the large areas of farmable land and
cheap labor in these developing countries, the production and importation of foods
from these areas will likely continue to grow in the coming years. As the local
governments and regulatory agencies in these developing countries work to improve
their oversight, importing countries and global food companies will need to verify
the safety of the production systems and the final food products. There will need to
be increased onsite monitoring activities by regulators from the importing
countries. Because there are so many different countries and locations exporting
foods, this will also require the use of certified integrated third party companies
or individuals to monitor the local production of foods.
Just as no single country has all the regulatory and oversight answers, no one
country has all of the research and food safety production and processing
technologies. Conducting research and developing new and effective technologies is
not easy or cheap. There are many bright food safety researchers in universities,
government agencies, and private industries in different countries of the world.
Efficient use of limited research funds will best be achieved through effective
communication of research initiatives, collaborative research projects, and timely
sharing of research results. Clearly, to maximize the return on our food safety
investments we must do a better job of communication. What better place to share
this knowledge than IAFP.
The International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) is dedicated to advancing
food safety worldwide. I invite you to join me and other food safety professionals
from around the world: in Lisbon, Portugal, November 19-21, 2008 for IAFP's Fourth
Annual European Symposium on Food Safety; in Grapevine, Texas, July 12-15, 2009 for
the 96th Annual Meeting of IAFP; and in Seoul, Korea, November 12-13, 2009 for
IAFP's First Asian Symposium on Food Safety.