FAO/WHO Global Forum of Food Safety Regulators
Marrakesh, Morocco, 28 - 30 January 2002
Improving Efficiency and Transparency in Food Safety Systems
Sharing Experiences
Appendix III
Inaugural Statements
from FAO and WHO
Dr Jacques Diouf
Director-General
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
First of all, I should like to express my gratitude to His Majesty King Mohammed VI and his Government for having kindly invited us to hold the Global Forum of Food Safety Regulators in this lovely historical city of Marrakech.
Food security is one of FAO's top priorities. Feeding - and feeding properly - the hundreds of millions of people who suffer from hunger and malnutrition requires attention not only to calorie needs but also to quality concerns.
Several million people suffer or die each year from foodborne diseases. This unacceptable situation calls for prompt and effective remedial action. It is not only a health and economic imperative but also a moral responsibility.
Food safety concerns all participants in the food chain, from primary producers to consumers, as food can be contaminated by pathogens at any link of this chain. The most effective and often least expensive actions should therefore aim to prevent such contamination at source.
The latest food crises have highlighted the responsibility of farming and farmers in consolidating food safety. Their involvement in resolving the problem is therefore more than a requirement; it is a duty. Responsibility for food safety must also be shared by the private sector, consumers and public authorities who need to work together to put in place adequate regulations, appropriate institutions, proven capacities and effective controls.
Finally, food safety is a shared responsibility of developed and developing countries. With the increasing globalization of trade in food products, health requirements applied by importing countries must seek to protect consumers and not to raise technical barriers to trade. Food safety is thus clearly the responsibility of all. I therefore urge the developed countries to provide the developing countries with their technical and financial support.
FAO is ready to play a major role in setting up an integrated international food safety system, in cooperation with WHO and the other international agencies concerned. Food safety and food security are inseparable. Food safety is an inalienable right of each individual and requires an effort of understanding, communication and cooperation.
I am convinced that this Forum will produce real progress towards ensuring that everyone has access to safe food. I therefore wish you every success in your deliberations.
Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland
Director-General World Health Organization
Honourable Ministers and Dear Participants,
I am very happy to address you at the opening of this first ever Global Forum of Food Safety Regulators.
This is a pioneering and exciting event. Food safety is an essential public health priority all over the world. It is one of WHO's present priorities. Not long ago, food safety - like tobacco - was regarded as a luxury problem of the industrialized world, not something worth spending precious international funding on. Luckily, that misperception has changed for tobacco; and you are helping to also set the picture straight for food safety.
WHO estimates that annually 2,1 million people die from diarrhoea, mainly caused by food or water, and that even in developed countries up to one third of the population suffers from food-borne disease every year. Food safety is a global priority, not only because the problems are shared globally, but because these problems have significant influence on both health and development world-wide.
Many countries are reporting significant increases in food-borne disease. This tells us that food safety systems are not keeping up with changes in microbiological and chemical hazards, shifting food consumption patterns and growing urbanization, new production methods and new technology or even the globalization of food trade.
We must reflect on these trends. We must improve our systems and avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. WHO, together with FAO and our Member States are working hard to develop new, evidence-based, preventative strategies to lower risk of disease. This work focuses on the whole food production chain. We promote an open and transparent risk-analysis framework and especially a dialogue with consumers. We encourage interdisciplinary collaboration all the way from farm to table.
But theory is not enough. The national experience in implementing new ways of prevention and response to food hazards will be the yardstick by which to measure success. This is where the Global Forum comes in. We need to share our experiences, good or bad, so that future food safety systems can improve and leap-frog over past mistakes. I am heartened by the broad, global interest for this meeting, both in participation and in the presentation of country reports.
I wish you a successful Forum, and look forward to continue working with you in the future in this critical area of public health.
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