The
UN Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO) and the World Health Organization
(WHO) have a busy two months ahead. They
will jointly convene a Global Forum of
Food Safety Regulators in Marrakech,
Morocco in January to be followed by
the Pan European Conference on Food Safety
and Quality in Budapest, Hungary in February.
The
Forum on Food Safety to be held from January 28 to
30, will be the first event of its kind to bring together
senior food safety regulators to exchange information
on approaches to food safety. The issues to be discussed
are of importance to public health and the international
food trade.
The meeting will cover issues such as transboundary
food safety emergencies and risk management for
reduction of food borne diseases. The delegates
will also address improvements in food safety
systems and will focus on developing countries.
They will hold public consultations in an attempt
to increase food safety capacity using scientific
methods in the developing world.
This meeting
has been organized as a result of a request
from member nations of the FAO and
the WHO to address the growing concerns on food
safety. The Group of 8 (G8) held a summit in
Okinawa, Japan, discussing challenges faced by
the world economy. At this summit the eight most
industrialized nations of the world, including
the US, Britain and Japan called for "periodic
international meetings of food safety regulators
to advance the process of science-based public
consultations." The Forum is also being
held because of this suggestion by the G8.
The participants of this Forum will be from
regulatory bodies of food safety from member
countries of the WHO and the FAO. Representatives
of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) dealing
with food safety will also attend.
The Pan-American Conference on Food Safety and
Quality will take place from February 25 to 28,
and is being held at the invitation of the Minister
of Agriculture and Regional Development of Hungary.
The delegates at this conference will discuss
issues dealing with food safety and quality in
Europe. The participants aim to discuss intra-regional
co-operation and networking between policy and
science. They also hope to discuss ways in which
information and communication systems can be
improved in the region.
Through this conference, the governments and
food related organization hope to strength consumer
confidence in food products.
The conference will yield a report on recommendations
about food quality and safety to the FAO Regional
Conference for Europe which will be held in Cyprus
in May.
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