Upon the request of the Philippine Government, FAO, through its Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (RAP), supported a pilot project titled “Development of National Food Safety Indicators with a One Health Approach”, with the Philippine College of Veterinary Public Health (PCVPH) as the service provider and in partnership with the Department of Agriculture (DA). The project aimed at initiating the process of developing and prioritizing national food safety indicators (FSIs) for the Philippines based on a pool of 40 regional indicators that were proposed during the regional consultation workshop organized by FAO in Singapore in December 2017.

The Philippines developed three priority FSIs and the results were shared for validation and refinement at a follow up Asia-Pacific Regional Meeting organized by FAO RAP in November 2019 in Wuhan, China. At this gathering, initial results and the ways forward of the pilot project were also discussed.

The three priority FSIs developed for the country include: number of meat inspectors trained on official food control doing routine inspection in licensed slaughterhouses in the National Capital Region (FSI #14); presence of and access to ISO 17025-accredited central food testing laboratory to detect and test for chloramphenicol (CAP) drug residue in shrimps for export (FSI #18); and meat stakeholders, including consumers, are informed and made aware of meat safety information as well as of potential problems and risks related to meat hygiene and safety through IEC materials (FSI #31).

At the project’s concluding workshop held on 27 February at the Sulo Riviera Hotel in Quezon City, FAO and its Philippine partners reviewed the project’s accomplishments and outputs as well as proposed plans for the adoption and possible mainstreaming of its results, particularly of the three priority foods safety indicators developed for the Philippines.

Ms Tamara Palis-Duran, FAO Assistant Representative for Programmes, in her remarks at the event, highlighted the importance of the results of the pilot project, particularly in relation to promoting food safety in the country.

“Although at this time only three food safety indicators had been prioritized and pilot-tested for the country, we now have a jump-off point towards developing a more extensive evidence-based measure to monitor the status and performance of the country’s food safety control system, which is also in line with one of the main thrusts of the revitalized DA under Secretary William Dar,” she said.

“The experiences, challenges, and lessons learned from this initiative will help form the basis for moving forward beyond the pilot phase and potentially be used in formulating and/or improving programs that will move forward the country’s national food safety system,” she concluded.