Food sellers or food assassins?

Richard Joseph
Caribbean Business Services Limited  

“More important than even profitability, food safety is the primary objective of everyone in the food industry internationally.” This assertion was made by Richard Parish, an international consultant on food safety systems at a workshop titled “Strengthening Agro Processors for Export” recently held in Tobago.

The reason given for this is that the incidence of food related illnesses have been increasing dramatically. Between 1973 and 1988 reported food related illnesses doubled, and then doubled again between 1988 and 1998. Companies found to be culpable in the spread of these illnesses have been punished severely.

Underlying this is the fact that food is no longer as safe as it once was. A wider range of food related illnesses are developing through the emergence of more virulent bacterial strains, and the adaptation of those stains to new forms of transmission. Foods that were previously considered safe, such as eggs and fruit juices, have become carriers of sickness and death. Processed food makes up a much larger part of the modern diet, and many more people eat commercially prepared food on a regular basis. Complementing this is an increase in the numbers of people at risk as a result of compromised immunity systems, chronic disease and an increasingly larger proportion of aged persons in the population. Capping all of this off is the awareness that the food supply chain represents a major area of vulnerability as a vehicle of attacks by terrorist organisations.

The international response to this has been to design, implement and to enforce food safety standards for everyone in the food chain from primary agriculture through food processors to restaurants and other sellers of processed food. Over forty years ago the FAO and the WHO set up the Codex Alimentarius Commission to establish a programme for protecting the health of consumers, ensuring fair trade practices in the food trade and to co-ordinate all food standards work undertaken internationally.

Individual countries have set up their own regulatory systems that are rigorously enforced. Bio-terrorism legislation in the USA has required all exporters to that country to register and implement input traceability systems. Barbados sends inspectors to Trinidad to ensure that the vegetables they import from us are not contaminated. The European Union has prohibited the importation of fish from Trinidad and Tobago until they are satisfied that our food safety legislation and enforcement is harmonised with theirs.

Are these regulations just another non-tariff barrier to protect domestic producers from imports? I do not think so. Governments have the same responsibility to protect their populations from bad food, as they have to protect them from bandits and other criminals. The issue of harmonised food safety standards will play an increasing role in the international trade of food products. Governments will take the view that if a country cannot or will not enforce regulations for the safety of the food consumed by it's own inhabitants, it cannot be trusted to ensure that it's food exports are safe for the inhabitants of other countries.

The Chemistry Food and Drugs Division of the Ministry of Health has the primary responsibility for ensuring food safety. I have yet to encounter anyone who is satisfied that the Division discharges its responsibilities satisfactorily. It is frequently reported that the Division is starved of resources, both human and physical.

Ineffectiveness by the Division impacts on the level of safety risks that we face. First, we have very limited assurance that the food we buy is safe. Long ago the main form of food poisoning that we were concerned about was “sweat rice”, now there are risks out there that kill.

Second, local producers are exposed to unfair competition from imports that are not properly screened. Third, it is quite likely that in the future more export markets for food products will be closed to us if the recipient countries are not satisfied with our regulatory environment for food safety.

Of course there is a socio-political dimension to the lack of enforcement. Most of the businesses in the food sector are micro and small enterprises who it is felt cannot afford the cost of implementing food safety systems. A regulator once told me that enforcement would result in putting people on the breadline. I wonder if anyone knows the cost of lack of enforcement in terms of productive time lost, avoidable medical treatment and even death.

It is unacceptable that we do not take a serious approach to ensuring food safety. The Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers Association has included in it's recommendations for the National Budget that the Chemistry Food and Drugs Division be given all of the resources needed to carry out it's mandate. That this has not been done calls into question whether we have the capability at all. Unsafe food can harm just as much as bandit’s bullets, and requires a similar level of attention.