Food Safety – a growing concern in Asia
22/09/2011
Food safety has always been a key concern for consumers worldwide. Globally, stricter food safety and quality standards are being established to protect the consumer and the food handling staff alike. At the same time companies are challenged with issues of sliding customer confidence and winning stakeholder trust.
Food safety has always been a key concern for consumers all across the globe. Asia like many other regions has witnessed numerous food scandals in the past decade, and many Asian countries are registering increasing rates of food illnesses. Diarrhoeal diseases alone kill an estimated 1.5 million children annually. Global food safety concerns include recent E-coli outbreak in Europe, radioactive food contamination, safer interconnected global food supply chains and more.
The Indonesian food association emphasizes on the importance of proper food storage and handling and improved hygiene. As more and more people in developing countries in Asia eat food prepared outside their homes, concerns over proper handling and safe preparation have been alarming the public. Many Indonesian farmers store commodity items in reused packaging include items such as chemical drum, fertilizer bags, and plastic for industrial goods. The residue of chemicals if they are not well washed will compromise on the food safety.
Singapore Straits Times recently ran a story talking about expired canned foods and drinks being resold to the ‘black market’ in Singapore at heavily discounted prices. Australian Government’s latest data on food poisoning claims that poorly cooked eggs, fish and milkshakes are the biggest culprits in causing foodborne diseases.
According to the World Health Organization, about 75% of the new infectious diseases affecting humans over the past 10 years were caused by bacteria, viruses and other pathogens that started in animals and animal products. Many of these diseases in people are related to the handling of infected domestic and wild animals during food production - in food markets and at slaughter houses.
Food safety issues can occur at any stage from farm to table. Growing population, rapid urbanization, lack of resources and low awareness in many Asian nations mean that food systems continue to be stressed. While many large scale food producers and suppliers are investing in training their staff about safe cooking and food hygiene, smaller food operators are still lax about equipment sanitation; personnel hygiene, safer food cooking, storage and distribution practices that can become a liability to their business.
“We are what we eat” is an old proverb and to address this worldwide concern on food security, stricter food safety and quality standards are being established to protect not only the consumer but also protect food handling staff. In many countries, Governments have started laying more emphasis on how food is produced along the supply chain than just on meeting the standard of the food product – making compliance a difficult task.
Not all is gloomy for the food operators in Asia. This emergence of stricter regulation of the entire food supply chain has also provided significant opportunities for certified products in developed and industrialised nations in today’s competitive global markets. In addition, these international standards aimed at improving food safety may result into lower food losses, thereby increasing food availability for the growing population in Asia.
To ensure your Food Safety Management System is effectively meeting the requirements of your customers and society at large, visit Food Safety by LRQA.
Join us in our discussion on food safety at the upcoming CSR Asia Summit 2011 at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.