Global food safety

Posted by Andrew Wadge on February 8th 2007 in Out and about

I attended a meeting of more than 500 senior food business executives from 43 countries last week to discuss issues around food safety. Given the complexity of the global food supply, the call for one common food safety standard throughout the supply chain around the world, known as the Global Food Safety Initiative, was of particular interest.

There is clearly a lot of sense in retailers and food suppliers operating to a common standard, not least because of the inefficiencies in the current arrangements whereby retailers and suppliers operate to a multitude of different audit and safety standards around the world.

But what interested me most was the statement that 'Food Safety was a Non-Competitive Issue', which was then re-stated with a question mark at the end. So my challenge to the food industry is this:  Is food safety a competitive issue or not?

My concern is that we need to put in place mechanisms so that we can all learn from the experiences of food safety problems – and this means sharing information and data.  We will continue to explore ways of making this happen with different parts of the food industry.

add new comment

Talking about food safety

Posted by Alvaro Pastoriza (not verified) on 20/03/2007 - 20:49

It is common sense to accept that is not a competitive issue for the simple reason that is not in the food business interest to get their customers sick or dead but to feed them safely for as many years as they can for very obvious reason.

I think that the Codex and ISO are already working towards a uniform standarisation between different countries of food safety standards with the ISO22000 and there is a certain movement towards a common approach to the issues because in a competitive market producing in a different regulatory environment can make a difference to the viability of the business because improving standards cost money and people able to produce in less stringent conditions find it rather easier to compete.

It will be good if governments are able to decide how much of a priority is food safety for their citizens and how important is to ensure the competitiveness of the national industry as a source of welfare for the nation. Having to source food abroad is not smart in the long run and that is what is coming to the way we are going.

Foof safety is and always

Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on 11/03/2007 - 16:29

Foof safety is and always has been a competitive issue. Food safety does not come free it requires investment, at times considerable levels of investment, and as such it must be a competitive issue. Companies that cut corners in the short term at least gain competitive advantage through reduced cost. Those that invest protect both their customers and their reputation It is really rather silly to sugest otherwise.

food safety and microbial resistance

Posted by Paul (not verified) on 21/02/2007 - 18:13

Food safety is a competitive issue. When suppliers mass produces poultry in crowded conditions, propping up the process with ample use on antibiotics so that produce can arrive at the supermarkets shelves as cheaply as possible, rather than expiring during rearing, food safety becomes compromised with regard to longer term microbial resistance. But isn’t it a core responsibility of the Food Standards Agency to address this problem?

Food safety International

Posted by senthilingam (not verified) on 10/02/2007 - 15:47

Dear Sir
I travl to third world countries and train candidated on food safety and HACCP h ow to implemet according to their cultural eay of cooking and eationg.I now trying to teach latest methods C.C.C.C .Do you have any format of training certificate to issue to candidates abroad .
Also any other documents to train candidates.