Business Desk :
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations on Thursday launched a new project that will support the Government of Bangladesh to develop the country’s first set of national food safety indicators.
The indicators will play an important part in improving food safety which is a government priority, said a press release.
Experts from the project will work with government and other partners to introduce the concept of measuring food safety indicators, collect recommendations for implementation, and identify priority pilot areas suitable for Bangladesh.
The Secretary of the Ministry of Food, Mosammat Nazmanara Khanum was chief guest and Bangladesh Food Safety Authority (BFSA) Chairman (Additional Secretary) Md Abdul Kayowm Sarker was special guest at the event chaired by the Food Planning and Monitoring Unit (FPMU) Director General Md Shahiduzzaman Faruki.
The event was attended by 85 guests from 37 organizations, including representatives from the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the United States Department of Agriculture, several Food Safety Technical Committees, academics, researchers, and other participants who work in the field of food safety.
John Taylor, acting interim FAO representative in Bangladesh, said that FAO was fully committed to helping the government achieve its ambition of improving food safety for the people of Bangladesh.
“Ensuring food safety is a public health priority and an essential step to achieving food security. Effective food safety and quality control systems are key not only to safeguarding the health and wellbeing of people, but also to fostering economic development and improving livelihoods by promoting access to domestic, regional, and international markets,” he said.
“FAO recognises and fully supports the government’s commitment towards improving food safety. This project is an important step towards developing indicators that are essential to setting standards and measuring progress.”
How to measure food safety towards strengthened national food control systems has been a key discussion in the Asia and the Pacific region. International guidelines and standards recommend that countries establish food safety indicators as part of an effective national food control system. In view of this, FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific has developed a set of 40 regional food safety indicators (FSIs), the press release added.
Four pilot countries reported that the indicators are extremely useful when developing a result-based food safety programme. Sridhar Dharmapuri, Senior Food Safety and Nutrition Officer, FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, provided key information on food safety indicators and an overview of the project at Thursday’s event.
“Bangladesh has made remarkable progress since the BFSA was set up in 2015, in integrating food control and implementing measures across supply chains for ensuring safe food. It is now important to identify national indicators that can be consistently monitored over the next few years and track how food safety is changing and improving,” he said.
The Government of Bangladesh demonstrated its strong commitment for safer food and enacted the Food Safety Act, 2013, with the aim of protecting consumers’ health by ensuring that food produced, imported, and marketed in Bangladesh observes food safety standards.
The Bangladesh Food Safety Authority (BFSA) was established on 2 February 2015 under the provisions of Food Safety Act, 2013, to coordinate all food control agencies along with the supply chain of food. As a single authority tasked to facilitate food safety activities in the country, BFSA is expected to work closely with multi-sectoral agencies, including Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare; Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI), Ministry of Industry; Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), Ministry of Agriculture; Department of Livestock Services (DLS) and Department of Fisheries (DOF), Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock; Department of Environment (DOE), Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change; and Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR), Ministry of Science and Information and Communication Technology, the press release further added.
