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Thursday March 28, 2024

Pakistan must expedite formation of National Food Standards Council

By our correspondents
November 24, 2017
Islamabad: Establishing harmonized food standard practices protect consumers and facilitate international trade. Pakistan’s political leadership needs to resolve the issue of having a different standard for each province. It is unfortunate that the country does not even have a National Food Standards Council yet. The provincial food authorities should play a positive and proactive role in promoting industry and future investments.
Minister for Defence Production Rana Tanveer Hussain floated this suggestion at the National Conference on ‘Food Safety and Harmonization: shaping a Healthier Nation,’ organized under the Ministry of Science and Technology in collaboration with Nestlé Pakistan. Tanveer said, this issue is not a matter of personal ego; it is related to the adoption of international best practices.
“Pakistan’s food industry is the 2nd largest and plays a key role in the country’s economic growth, the Minister added, hoping that the conference will give new direction to scientists, regulators and other stakeholders for a way forward on harmonization of food standard and safety.
The conference brought to light the need for harmonization of food legislation in Pakistan to ensure food quality and standards that protect the health of consumers while facilitating trade at the domestic and international levels.
Delivering the keynote address, the outgoing Chairperson of Codex Alimentarius Commission Awilo Ochieng Pernet said, “The effective implementation of food safety and standards enable access of national products of regional and international markets. Putting food safety and national food rules on the political agenda is the first step towards economic growth for Pakistan.”
The Managing Director and CEO of Nestlé Pakistan and Vice President of the Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI) Bruno Olierhoek urged Pakistan to establish a National Food Council at the federal level in order to make one national food standard for the whole country, with the Provincial Food Authorities being responsible for enforcing these standards. “These standards must be harmonized with CODEX International Standards so that import and export can also be facilitated. One Pakistan, One Food Rules,” he stated.
The conference also had two technical sessions on food harmonization and food safety, which were chaired by Malik Zahoor Ahmad, Senior Advisor, Federal Ministry of National Food Security and Research and Prof. Dr. Tahir Zahoor, Director General, National Institute of Food Science and Technology. The two sessions saw participation from Khalid Siddiq, Director General, Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority, Dr. Muhammad Ashraf, Chairman, Pakistan Council for Research in Water Resources, and Noor-ul-Amin Mengal, Director General, Punjab Food Authority. The two sessions concluded that it harmonization of safe food rules was essential across Pakistan. Also present at the conference was the CEO of Unilever Pakistan.
Speaking at the valedictory session, Minister for Commerce Muhammad Pervez asserted that unsafe food causes more than 200 million deaths across the globe. “Food safety is a cross cutting issue and requires participation from all stakeholders including consumers, private sector, governing bodies and regulators. It is only when we have harmonized standards based on global standards like Codex that we will have access to international markets. We are one nation, let’s make our food safe and let’s harmonize ourselves,” he urged.
In his concluding remarks, Secretary of the Board of Investment (BOI) Azhar Ali Chaudhry said, “Food sector is sensitive as food is difficult to manage without set standards. Adopting internationally accepted standards are conducive to trade and also likely to reduce costs to develop nation-specific standards. The Ministries of Science and Technology and Agriculture should take steps to harmonize food standards.”
Globally, the European Union is a great example of food harmonization as 27 EU countries have one food standard that is approved by EU Commission. All food industries in Europe follow the same standards while each country is responsible for enforcing those standards.