ANNEX 4
Address by Dr Kraisid Tontisirin, Director, Food and Nutrition Division
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Your Excellencies, the Honourable Rodolfo Coto, Minister of Agriculture and Livestock Production, the Honourable María del Roció Sáenz, Minister of Health, the Honourable Gilberto Barrantes, Minister of Economy, Industry and Commerce and the Honourable Doris Osterlof, Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade,
Distinguished Ambassadors and representatives of the Diplomatic Corps from various countries of the
Americas and the Caribbean,
Dear colleagues from WHO and other UN agencies;
Distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen!

It is my pleasure to welcome you on behalf of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to the FAO/WHO Regional Conference on Food Safety for the Americas and the Caribbean. This conference is part of a series of regional conferences that FAO and WHO are convening to provide a forum where food safety officials from the region can come together to share information and experiences on how the safety of foods may be improved. FAO is grateful to the Government of Costa Rica for hosting this conference and I thank the organizing committee for the efforts made to make this a successful event.

The importance of food safety

The issue that has brought us together here, food safety, is of critical importance to the Americas and the Caribbean. Let me just mention four reasons:

• First, ensuring safe and healthy food is an important precondition of food security. It is essential for improving human life in all countries, whether developed or developing. Rather than being a luxury of the rich, everyone should have the right to an adequate supply of safe, nutritious food.
• Secondly, lack of food safety has a high cost. Each outbreak of food-borne illness causes not only human suffering, but also direct and indirect costs. It is estimated that in developed countries, these costs amount to US$100/person/year on average. They could be even greater in developing countries, and they include the loss of lives.
• Thirdly, greater food safety is important for both exports and imports. For example, Guatemala was able to increase its exports of fresh fruits and vegetables more than three-fold from the year 1990 to 2000, largely by improving their quality and safety control systems. Further, proper import inspection is needed to prevent contaminated foods from reaching consumers in importing American and Caribbean countries.
• Finally, improving food safety has the added advantage that it helps reduce food losses or even avoid them. New technologies and practical control measures are available to improve the safety of food, thereby extending its usable life.

Challenges to improving food safety

Despite increased availability of advanced tools and approaches, many challenges remain to improving food safety in the region. Let me mention some:

1. Adherence to food safety standards has a cost. Depending on the step in the food chain where the standard is set, these costs are borne by food producers, processors or retailers, but finally they are also reflected in the price paid by consumers. This calls for efficiency in meeting standards to prevent some suppliers from being pushed out of business.

   • Take the example of fruits and vegetables, an important export from several American and Caribbean countries. In fact, the value of exports of fresh fruits and vegetables from Latin America and the Caribbean has nearly doubled from 1990 to 2000. However, new regulations in some importing markets require fruit and vegetable imports to be traceable at all stages of production, processing and distribution, creating new challenges in many producing countries.
   • Fish and fish products are also an important product for the region, both for export and local consumption. For example, Nicaragua was able to more than double the value of its shrimp exports from 1994 – 2000 by implementing a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point system to improve the hygiene of shrimp processing. However, implementation of HACCP can be very costly, while great damage could be done to their shrimp export industry by only one food contamination incident.
   • Further, strict new mycotoxin regulations, including strict levels of Ochratoxin A in coffee, increases compliance costs for coffee producers, thus reducing profit margins.

2. Can we afford zero risk standards? I am aware that zero tolerance for food contaminants with a severe health impact is the general principle on which many national standards are established. Indeed, many people take the term ‘safe food’ to mean food with zero risk, but zero risk is often unattainable. Clearly, food must be safe for human consumption. Indeed, this is the ultimate rationale of standards and regulations adopted by Codex. However, where there is a margin for practical decisions in risk management, the benefits of aiming for absolute food safety should be balanced against the real extent of potential harm to consumers as well as the often high compliance costs.

3. Recent food scares have underlined how food safety problems can cross borders. Globalization, rising trade in food and agricultural products and increasing international travel have made it more difficult for countries to respond effectively to food crises without cooperation from their neighbours and trading partners. This makes it more important than ever to deepen food safety cooperation through the development of regional networks that provide a means to share relevant information and knowledge, and enhance readiness to plan and react to food emergencies.

4. In many parts of the Americas and the Caribbean, consumer awareness about food safety remains limited. Food safety could be considerably enhanced simply by raising public awareness and knowledge about food safety. Developing policies and programmes to inform, educate and communicate with consumers should therefore be an immediate priority.

5. In spite of improvements to official food control systems in the region, several countries still have overly fragmented or outdated food control systems. Strengthening the capacity of official food control agencies, the food industry and consumers, based on their respective roles and responsibilities, is of the utmost importance. This will require clear political commitment and support for food safety, as well as substantial investment, and demand-driven technical assistance.

Practical actions by FAO and partners to promote food safety

FAO is already working with other partners to implement practical actions to promote food safety in the region and throughout the world. This meeting is just one example of ongoing efforts by FAO and WHO to improve food safety globally and here in the Americas and the Caribbean Region. Other actions include:

1. Capacity and technical assistance. For instance, building on past actions, FAO is currently supporting or has recently supported three regional and nine national projects, with several others under development. Two of these regional projects, one in South America and one in Central America, are strengthening the analytical activities, laboratory quality assurance and capacity building of the Interamerican Network of Food Analytical Laboratories (INFAL/ RILAA). Other recent regional projects have provided Codex training for every country in the region.

   FAO also recently completed two large global projects, both of which undertook extensive activities in some of the countries the region. These projects addressed the quality and safety of fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as improving coffee quality through the reduction of mold formation. Tools developed in both of these projects, as well as other useful tools developed by FAO, will be demonstrated by my FAO colleagues in this room at 17:30 today.

2. FAO is working with WHO, OIE and the World Bank in the Standard and Trade Development Facility, housed in WTO and aiming to mobilize and coordinate support for capacity building in the areas of food safety, plant and animal health.

3. FAO and WHO are also managing a Trust Fund for Participation in Codex. Many of you attended a workshop the past two days that was supported by this trust fund.

4. FAO, together with WHO, provide expert scientific advice on food safety risks to members of the Codex Alimentarius Commission.

5. FAO, with other agencies, has developed the International Portal on Food Safety, Animal and Plant Health, which offers national governments and trading partners' access to relevant official information. A regional portal for the Latin America and the Caribbean region is also under development, which will exclusively focus on food safety and animal and plant health concerns of the region. The prototype version of the system will be launched at the end of the first quarter 2006, and the site will be available in Spanish, Portuguese and English. The portal will also be demonstrated today at 17:30.

Conclusion

Many countries in the region have made great progress in improving their food safety systems and increasing the competitiveness of their food products on the international market. These efforts need to be strengthened and expanded.

The region has great potential for producing high quality food products for both domestic consumption and export around the world. However, countries must give higher priority for food safety, not only to enable the region to further improve its trading opportunities, but also to protect the health of their own consumers domestically.

Regional cooperation and information exchange at all levels can provide a means to advance this goal. FAO and WHO have jointly convened this Regional Conference on Food Safety for the Americas and the Caribbean for exactly these purposes.

We in FAO stand ready to assist your countries in the efforts to strengthen capacity to better regulate and ensure the safety of food for all your citizens.