Food Safety Scandals and Food Security

In 2013, there was a wide scale recall of infant formula due to botulinum toxin contamination and before that there was the horsemeat scandal. That year consumers' confidence in the safety and security of the global food supply chain was severely challenged. Almost every year, some form of contamination and safety scandals happen in some parts of the world resulting in a spate of recalls globally costing consumers, retailers, manufacturers and government millions of dollars.

Food production has been anything other than straight forward and simple. A complex mixture of preservatives in prepared food, a complex mixture of inputs such as pesticides and fertilizers in fresh produce and a concoction of inputs in the form of hormones in animal produce have added a lot of confusion and distaste among consumers. 

Many of us do not know what we are eating anymore. What is the difference between chocolate milk and chocolate flavoured milk? When milk is considered a wholesome food why can't we feed milk to infants and seek out infant formulas or follow up formulas? When you are eating butter cookies do you know if you are eating butter cookies OR butter flavoured cookies? Does the food pyramid need to be revised? Consider also the almost epidemic proportion of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and cardio-vascular problems – which are attributed to unhealthy diets and lifestyles? How do nano-sized food ingredients affect our health and safety? 

Will changes in climate deprive us of our staples like rice, fish and milk or very important ingredients for cooking like peppers, garlics and onions?

 During the 2011 massive flooding in Thailand, the Thai government reduced rice exports markedly if not halting exports altogether to ensure that there is enough for its citizens. Malaysia depends on imported rice for appx 35% of its needs and Thailand is a significant rice trading partner. 

Malaysia’s food import bill stands somewhere between RM 30 billion and 40 billion! We are susceptible to the volatile global market price of food produces like rice, coffee, sugar, fruits and vegetables etc.  

Concerted effort is needed to address our dependence on imported food for example through increasing yield of local produce, making them more accessible to people, increasing agriculture land to produce food for local consumption, anticipating and addressing impacts of climate change and so on.

All those involved in food supply chain from farm to fork (including consumers) need to address issues like wastage (which run into thousands of tonnes a day), ensuring that food is safe for consumption and making food more accessible and affordable. 

Can international standards and conformity assessment help address some or most of the issues above? There are many international, regional and national standards which do: very popular being the ISO 22000, CODEX guidelines on food ingredients, mutual recognition agreements on food testing and study on several ingredients and pesticide residues. However, food processing and producing technologies evolve sometimes faster than a standard is developed or by the time sanitation and phytosanitation (SPS) standards are agreed upon. Fraud in food trade and traceability pose further challenges when food moves across borders. 

Food safety authorities need to be just that – authorities and always be ahead in terms of knowledge of new and emerging technologies and safety issues. Non-compliance must be dealt with severely and surveillance methods improved. Otherwise, we will keep fighting one scandal after another – when the time spent can be put to better use preventing the scandal in the first place.