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The Daily Journal |
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MEDIA By Nizar Al-Aly MARRAKESH - Mass media reports on food crisis often create a perception of panic, instead of building awareness on the need for global strategies to avert food-borne hazards, an international forum of experts meeting here in January 2002 said. The final statement urged the media to refrain from running false reports on food safety that may cause public panic. ''Some concerns were expressed that the mass media may misreport a food safety emergency and cause public panic,'' the statement said, adding ''it was suggested that to avoid this circumstance and build trust there must be complete transparency in the risk assessment process and open direct communication with the media.'' The forum on food safety called for a planetary strategy to avert food-borne hazards. Some 300 experts from 150 countries proposed the creation of international bodies to follow-up issues pertaining to food safety and encouraged countries to devise a global strategy, involving consumer associations for an efficient food safety. Organised Jan 28 through 30 by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) following a request by the G-8 summit, held in Okinawa, Japan in 2000, the Forum was the first global event that brought together senior food safety regulators to exchange information on approaches towards food safety. The Forum, themed 'Improving Efficiency and Transparency in Food Safety Systems - Sharing Experience,' sought to promote the exchange of information on approaches acquired by safety regulators, advance the process of science-based public consultations and facilitate capacity building in developing countries. Representatives of international organisations such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF), the UN Environmental Program (UNEP) and the UN Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), also attended. The Marrakesh Forum paid a special attention to the needs of developing nations in terms of training and technological equipment to ensure a better protection of their nationals and appealed to rich countries to extend necessary assistance to developing nations to help them fortify their control systems. Addressing the Forum, FAO's Director General Jacques Diouf urged rich countries to extend necessary assistance to developing ones to help them reinforce their ability to guarantee food safety. He equally called for securing food to thousands of people suffering from malnutrition and from food-borne diseases. ''This is a mission with a humanitarian and ethical range," he said. Abdelhamid Hannaoui, a searcher from the Moroccan Institute for Agronomic and Veterinary Studies (IAV), told IPS the Marrakesh meeting was not called to make recommendations nor propose solutions to issues that remain complex. ''The Forum's mission consists mainly of expressing concerns of the North and South countries alike with a view to attracting attention to the sensitive issue of food-borne hazards,'' he said. New challenges in food safety have arisen as a result of changes in microbiological and chemical hazards, shifts in production methods, modern technology and increases in international trade and travel. According to a document released by FAO, in the United States alone, an estimated 76 million people got sick from food-borne illnesses in 1999 and 5 000 of them died. World-wide, the incidence of food-borne diseases may be 300 to 350 times higher than the number of reported cases. ''Food safety has become a priority at the planetary scale in view of its consequences on human health and on development at large," WHO Director General, Gro Harlem Bruntland, said. The U.N official, who deplored that 2.1 million people die annually in developing nations because of diarrhoea and food-related diseases, called for a global strategy to reduce microbial diseases and food-borne illnesses. ''Our capacity to produce food has grown in recent years. Our capacity to ensure that it is safe lagged behind,'' said the lead organiser of the Marrakesh Forum, FAO consumer protection expert, Ezzedine Boutrif. ''This damages trade as well as health,'' he added. For instance, failure to meet aflatoxin regulations for groundnut products costs African countries 250 million dollars in lost trade a year. Concerns about cholera in fish cost Peru 700 million dollars in 1991, added Dr. Boutrif, noting ''if key players in every country work together, they can prevent much of this.'' The growth in travel and trade means that hazards can cross borders faster. Regulatory structures are needed. FAO and WHO set up since 1963 the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC), which sets and updates standards on a wide range of food issues. These include microbial contamination, natural and environmental toxins. Speaking at the Forum's closing session, Moroccan agriculture minister, Ismail Alaoui, stressed the need of an efficient multilateral cooperation among control bodies. Making a case of his country's experience in the field, Alaoui, said '' Morocco reformed its food-safety-related legal mechanism to ensure a better protection for consumers.'' He cited, in this connection, the creation of a network of labs and food-safety controls in border points to check the quality of food entering the country. He announced that his country is finalising a project to set up an agency in charge of assessing food-borne hazards. ''In a country, where only 0.7 percent of the gross domestic product is allotted to scientific research, the gap remains wide between aspiration and reality,'' said Abdelhamid Hannaoui. |
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