Call to enhance global food safety

The growing globalization of food production means greater cooperation between countries, regulators and enterprises is needed to ensure food safety, officials and experts from APEC countries said.

Lin Wei, deputy director general of the Import and Export Food Safety Bureau with the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, said the global division of labor in the food production process has made it more necessary to boost supervision.

"Further cooperation between government and enterprises is needed as enterprises must take the primary responsibility in ensuring of food safety, while the government can only work as the supervisor in the process," he said.

Lin said the quarantine authority has further extended its work to the source country of imported food to ensure safety.

"We will devote more effort to risk management in the source country of imports in the future," he said.

Steve McCutcheon, co-chair of Food Standards Australia and New Zealand, said enhanced international cooperation and dialogue is important.

"Regulators are increasingly working together with industries to make sure that everyone is providing safe food.

"Whether it is a food safety company in China or one in Australia, they can all learn from each other in ensuring food quality," he said.

Alfred Almanza, administrator of the US Department of Agriculture's Food Safety Inspection Service, said trust between nations is important to solve frictions in trade.

"It is about trust. It is about depending on each other to solve the problems within the system in each country," he said.

The APEC Food Safety Cooperation Forum, held in Beijing from Sept 10 to 13, will also cover issues including how regulators and industry can work together to promote food trade and improve risk communication and provide accurate food safety information to the consumers.