Friday, March 29, 2024 | Ramadan 18, 1445 H
clear sky
weather
OMAN
25°C / 25°C
EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Raising awareness on food safety highlighted

2016743
2016743
minus
plus

“Ensuring food security is one of the major pillars of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources not only to ensure availability, stability or ability to obtain food, but also to ensure that the food consumed is safe and meets the physical needs of individuals’’, said Dr Hussain bin Samh al Masrouri, Director General of the Food Safety and Quality Centre.


During a workshop on ‘Food safety and quality systems’ held on Wednesday, he confirmed that one of the most strategic objectives of the ministry is to ensure the safety and quality of food in accordance with regulations and legislation and to follow up on their implementation. This goal is adopted by the Food Safety and Quality Centre to improve the quality of work and ensure the achievement of its strategic and operational objectives.


The workshop was held at Kempinski Hotel, Al Mouj Muscat, under the auspices of Dr Saud bin Hamoud al Habsi, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Water Resources. The workshop will conclude on Thursday with a session on ‘food quality’.


Dr Hussain added that the food safety and quality system is one of the most important pillars that aim to protect public health and reduce healthcare costs.


“With the rapid development in techniques of production, industry and food preservation, the emergence of various manufactured food products from various sources and the great openness that the world is witnessing in the field of trade exchange, this system faces several challenges at local, regional and international levels. The challenges are in the form of lifestyle changes, food consumption, an increase in unhealthy food handling practices, and the emergence of new biological and chemical risks.


These problems aggravate by wasting about a third of food produced globally, which is often attributed to weaknesses in food safety, and quality management along value chains, as indicated by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations’’, he explained.


Al Masrouri pointed out that these challenges need to be addressed by rehabilitating human cadres working in the regulatory authorities and food establishments and improving their capabilities to keep pace with the steady progress in the food industry.


He said, “Since food safety is a responsibility that begins on the farm and ends at the table. It, therefore, falls on everyone — starting with those concerned with food sources in a country of origin for imports or in farms and factories inside the country, passing through workers in the supply chains and ending with the consumer. It includes all the authorities concerned with the food safety sector, directly or indirectly. Besides, various media, including social media, play an important role in raising awareness among various segments of society of the importance of food safety and quality and healthy handling and handling methods”.


Dr Ismail bin Mohammed al Balushi, Associate Professor at the Department of Food and Nutritional Sciences, College of Agricultural and Marine Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, presented a paper entitled ‘Food Safety: Concept, Challenges and the Future’. He highlighted that safe food is defined as food that does not contain any biological, chemical, physical or other risks that affect human health, or it is food that may have those risks, but with minor levels, that does not affect the human body.


“Despite the multiplicity and diversity of risks, especially with the increasing effects of climate change, which has become evident in cases of food poisoning, and the emergence of types of microbes, which are causing cases of food poisoning at the present time, especially in the United States of America and some countries In Europe, consumer lack of awareness and producer irresponsibility remain the biggest challenge to food safety, especially in developing societies where the consumer does not know the basics of food safety”.


He added that any strategy built in food safety must first focus on enhancing consumer awareness of food safety and generating a sense of responsibility for the producer at all stages of production, starting from the selection of raw materials to the arrival of the food product to the consumer.


SHARE ARTICLE
arrow up
home icon