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Food Focus February 2008

Consumer organisations vital to food safety

Consumer organisations play a vital role in promoting food safety messages and protecting their nation’s health – that was the message NZFSA Consumer Forum representative Wendy McGowan served up to delegates at an international forum late last year in Beijing

Mrs McGowan, Region Five National Councillor for Rural Women New Zealand, was in Beijing to attend the International Food Safety Forum on behalf of the International Association of Consumer Food Organisations (IACFO). Her trip was funded by NZFSA.

“NZFSA convenes a Consumers’ Forum three or four times a year to consult on a range of topics, from research priorities to labelling requirements, and these consumer organisations should play a vital role in advising governments on the acceptability of policies they are considering”, Ms McGowan told the forum.

“I suggested to delegates that one way forward may be better educating consumers about safe food handling. In this area, consumer organisations like IACFO and NZFSA’s Consumer Forum have a valuable contribution to make. These groups can make consumers aware of the vital role they play in protecting their family’s health by following good food safety practices at home and helping reduce the number of illnesses and deaths from contaminated food.”

The forum brought together senior officials from Member States of WHO and representatives of the food industry and consumer organisations to discuss strategies to enhance food safety worldwide. Changes in food production and consumer habits, as well as increasing trade liberalisation and economic globalisation, have made food safety an increasingly important global issue. It not only concerns human health, but also has a major impact on national economies.

About the forum

The High-level International Food Safety Forum, sponsored by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People’s Republic of China (AQSIQ), and co-sponsored by the Chinese Ministry of Health (MOH) and WHO, was held in Beijing on 26–27 November 2007. About 600 delegates attended from over 40 countries including the United States, Canada, Germany, Australia, Argentina, New Zealand and South Korea.

The Beijing Declaration on Food Safety came at the conclusion of the forum, and was the first time that countries recognised food safety as a joint responsibility. The document urged all countries to:

• establish procedures, including tracking and recall systems, to rapidly identify, investigate and deal with food safety incidents

• inform WHO of emergencies such as the outbreaks of mad cow disease

• set up food and total diet monitoring programs with linkages to human and food-animal disease surveillance systems to obtain rapid and reliable information on food-borne diseases and hazards in food supply.

Realising that food safety standards could be used as a trade barrier, the declaration stipulated that food safety measures should be based on sound scientific evidence and risk analysis principles and should not create trade barriers.