Food Quality, Safety and Traceability Workshop
A three-day thematic workshop on Food Quality, Safety and Traceability, was organised by the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) and CIRAD (France) on 24-27 February 2009, in Bangkok. The workshop identified topics, as well as S&T challenges of common interest where both the EU and SEA will benefit from cooperation. The workshop also aimed to provide valuable input to the Programme Directorates of the European Commission on the S&T potentials of SEA and research topics of mutual EU – SEA interest to better achieve the programme’s goals of the Activity 2.2 - “Fork to farm” of the Programme Knowledge-Based Bio-Economy (KBBE) of the “Cooperation” part of FP7. About 40 scientists and food experts attended the meeting from 11 different countries.
In South East Asia, food quality has become a public-health issue for both rural and urban populations. Protein-energy malnutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, food-borne pathogens and diarrhoea remain major causes of mortality. Apart from resistant bacterial strains, mycotoxin fungi can contaminate foodstuff like cereal, nuts, coffee, cocoa, grapes, beer, wine, spices and animal feed. Food health problems are also aggravated by rapidly increasing urban populations in most South East Asian countries, which is leading to an unprecedented demand for food products. This dramatic rise in demand means an intensification of food production in rural areas, which means farmers are using highly-contaminating chemicals in the form of pesticides, fertilisers and hormones.
Food safety is a major concern for ASEAN in administering the food chain. Food safety is identified as one of the priorities of the Sub-Committee on Food Science and Technology (SCFST) in the ASEAN Plan of Action on S&T (APAST). The ASEAN Food Safety Policy and ASEAN Framework on Food Policy have been established as part of a comprehensive program of action to address the impact of globalisation and trade liberalisation. In parallel, the ASEAN Food Safety Improvement Plan (AFSIP) was developed to take into account scientific and risk-based approach of the both programmes. Food Safety encompasses from “Farm to Table (fork)” whose responsibilities are shared by industry, consumers and government.
EU and SEA experts discussed scientific & technical opportunities to find new ways to tackle food contamination such as developing new detection methods, traceability, technologies and tools for risk assessment, which are considered as highly relevant for the co-operation between Europe and South East Asia. Topics of joint interest were addressed, such as safer and more sustainable use of plant protection agents to meet EU & South East Asian market needs, reduction of heavy metal contamination in seafood or vegetables, better use of chemical prophylaxis and medication in aquaculture and meat production, substantiation of rapid methods for the screening the mycotoxins in the whole supply chain, development of methods and tools to evaluate the impact of climate change on food safety, and accessibility to safe food by food insecure households.
For more information, please contact Sloan Saletes on sloan.saletes@cirad.fr
Related Countries:
Southeast Asia
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