Codex side event discusses the future of food safety
The meeting of the Codex Committee on Contaminants in Food (CCCF) this week in Utrecht provided an opportunity Tuesday for discussions on FAO’s foresight programme in a FAO -hosted side event.
Vittorio Fattori, FAO Food Safety Officer, and Daniela Battaglia, FAO Animal Production Officer, were joined by Ong How Chee from the Singapore Food Agency in presenting the challenges and opportunities posed by new and emerging foods and food production systems. The presentations were followed by a question-and-answer session with an audience made up of Codex Members and Observers.
“The global agrifood system is changing,” said Fattori, as he spoke of shifting trends in the production of food. The trends include new production systems that are being adopted in the urban environment, the growing importance of the circular economy, new food sources and changing production patterns caused by climate change. All of these, he explained, have an impact on food safety in different ways. It is important to keep pace with these evolving scenarios – not, he cautioned, to try and predict the future, but to gather information from different sources for long-term planning.
Battaglia concentrated on the potential benefits of alternative sources of feed in the context of the circular bioeconomy. A growing global population is demanding more food of animal origin, she said, which requires more feed, which needs to be safe. She described how one third of food produced is lost and wasted. This waste can be used locally as feed, provided this is done sustainably and safely. A One Health approach is important, she said.
Chee presented some examples of new food production in Singapore and described how the authorities are managing the development of new regulatory processes for businesses working on cell-based foods and hydroponic systems. He also highlighted an example of the food safety issues that may need to be considered within the field of hydroponics.
Other issues discussed included re-use and recycling of plastics for food packaging, new foods (including cell-based meat), as well as the challenges of developing advice on subjects that are new and for which there are therefore scarce data.
The event was concluded with comments from the CCCF Chair, Sally Hoffer, who suggested that a similar discussion would be useful at every CCCF meeting. “Let’s do this every year,” she said, “with themes raised, and discuss and inspire each other.”
Read more about the side event on the Codex site
Related links
FAO publication on foresight in food safety
FAO Food Safety Foresight web page
Photo: © FAO/Codex