For World Food Safety Day 2022, the Mekong Institute (MI) joined stakeholders of the national food control system in the Lao People's Democratic Republic to commemorate the importance of food safety for public and economic health. In a forum aimed at strengthening multi-agency and multi-stakeholder collaboration, participants also sought to ensure enhanced awareness among consumers of the importance of safer food.

MI is supporting the Lao government’s goals of advancing food safety across the country through the PROSAFE Project, a five-year initiative funded by the New Zealand Aid Programme. PROSAFE (Promoting Safe Food for Everyone) runs training and capacity building programmes throughout the Lao People's Democratic Republic. This work will support government measures to scale up food production and value addition in the agri-food sector, which will depend for their success on the integrity of the food control system in ensuring public health is protected. It is hoped that the awareness raising activities will result in a groundswell of demand for safer food among Lao consumers.

The Director General of the Lao Food and Drug Department, Bounxou Keohavong, officiated the forum and stated that Lao Food Law and regulations underpin efforts to protect food safety for consumers in the Lao People's Democratic Republic. Additionally, MI’s Suriyan Vichitlekarn reiterated the organization’s commitment to the capacity building of agri-food stakeholders in the Greater Mekong subregion to achieve food safety and agri-food development and commercialization goals. Somsack Vongvixay of the Lao Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry expressed the vision shared by the government, of protecting the general public through the promotion of compliance with Good Agricultural Practices, Organic Agriculture and Integrated Pest Management to minimize the risk of pesticides in fresh produce.

PROSAFE is also being implemented in Cambodia, Myanmar, and Viet Nam.

Watch the MI video: https://www.facebook.com/mekonginstitute.org/videos/1477320579385254/

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https://www.mekonginstitute.org/news-activities/detail/2022/06/07/strengthening-collab/