DA moves to ensure RP’s compliance with world food safety standards

Faced with the grim prospect of losing its dollar-generating agriculture and fishery exports because of the tightening of global food security regulations, the Department of Agriculture (DA) through the National Agricultural and Fishery Council (NAFC), is reactivating the National Codex Organization (NCO) to ensure the country’s compliance with world food safety standards.

The NCO is being revived after being dormant for four years. The NCO previously monitored all relevant food safety regulations being imposed by international bodies such as the Codex Alimentarius Commission and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and prepared the country’s official stand on all matters pertaining to new food standards set by these agencies.

It also lobbied to oppose objectionable rules which were usually intended as non-tariff barriers to the country‚s exports of agricultural fishery products.

The government inter-agency members of the NCO are the Bureau of Agriculture and Fisheries Product Standards (BAFPS), National Meat Inspection Commission (NMIC), Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, Philippine Coconut Authority, National Food Authority’s Food Development Center (FDC), Bureau of Animal Industry, Bureau of Plant Industry and the Bureau of Food and Drugs Administration.

The private sector will initially be represented by the San Miguel Corp. (SMC) and the Seaweed Industry Association of the Philippines (SIAP).

The NAFC committee on fisheries and aquaculture (CFA)which pushed for the restoration of the NCO, said re-establishing the NCO should boost the government’s efforts to consolidate its resources in fending off non-tariff barriers being imposed by the United States and European Union through the setting of stringent rules for the entry of fresh and processed food products from the Philippines.

"The revival of the NCO is significant because it comes at difficult times when the Philippines’ processed food exports are increasingly facing stiff food regulations imposed by importing countries," said Pete Borja, of the NAFC-CFA.

Borja noted that with the NCO representing the Philippine government in international talks on food safety regulations instead of previous individual lobbies by private sector groups, it will be easier to negotiate with importing countries as well as recognized world bodies such as the CAC and UN-FAO.

The non-compliance by some Philippine food exporters with rules has often led to the refusal of all products coming from the country and if this goes on, the Philippines stands to lose its major markets such as the US and EU.

Between February 2003 and January this year, the US Food and Drug Administration directed the US Bureau of Customs to ban the entry of more than 500 processed food exports, such as instant noodles and shrimp paste for failure to comply with quality standards.

The violations cited by the USFDA can be categorized into four, namely the presence of filth (like impurities, dirt, human hair and mosquito wings), salmonella, histamines and deviations on standard labeling and packaging requirements which include nutrition information, as well as name of business of the manufacturer, packer or distributor. A number of products were also found to contain color additives that the USFDA deemed to be unsafe.

There have also been incidents in recent months where the USFDA rejected Philippine exports of fresh frozen octopus due to contaminated water and adulteration.

The EU on the other hand, is also setting more stringent health and sanitary standards on copra meal and coconut oil exports. While already reducing the maximum limit on aflatoxin content in copra meal from 200 parts per billion (pbb) to only 20 parts per billion (pbb), the EU also successfully lobbied for the Codex Alimentarius Commission to cut the maximum allowable hydrocarbon content in coconut oil to only 2 to 12 pbb from 47 pbb.