Body to monitor RP compliance with global food safety standards formed

Agriculture Secretary Luis Lorenzo Jr. has approved the creation of an ad hoc committee that will select members of the recently-reactivated National Codex Organization (NCO) to ensure the country’s compliance with global food safety requirements and elevate Philippine food exports to world-class standards.

Through Department of Agriculture (DA) special order 307, Lorenzo authorized the ad hoc committee to establish legal and administrative mechanisms for the revival of the NCO in three months and to decide its membership.

The National Agricultural and Fishery Council (NAFC), an agency attached to the DA, pushed for the restoration of the NCO as local food exports face the grim prospect of losing its dollar-generating agriculture and fishery exports because of the tightening of global food security regulations.

The NCO has been dormant for four years. It previously monitored all relevant food safety regulations being imposed by international bodies such as the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (UN-FAO). The NCO served as an advisory body on food standardization and control issues arising from issuance of CAC rules. Its other functions included preparing the country’s official stand on all matters pertaining to new food standards set by these agencies. It also lobbied against moves to impose non-tariff barriers to the country’s exports of agricultural and fishery products.

Represented in the ad-hoc committee are the Bureau of Agriculture and Fisheries Product Standards (BAFPS), National Meat Inspection Commission (NMIC), Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, Philippine Coconut Authority, National Food Authority’s Food Development Center (FDC), Bureau of Animal Industry, Bureau of Plant Industry and the Bureau of Food and Drugs Administration.

The private sector will be represented initially by the San Miguel Corp. and the Seaweed Industry Association of the Philippines (SIAP).

DA officials had said that re-establishing the NCO should boost the government’s efforts to consolidate its resources in fending off non-tariff barriers being imposed by the United States and European Union by setting stringent rules for the entry of fresh and processed food products from the Philippines.

"The revival of the NCO is significant because it comes at difficult times when the Philippines’ processed food exports are increasingly facing stiff food regulations imposed by importing countries," said Pete Borja of the NAFC committee on fisheries and aquaculture.

Borja noted that with the NCO as the sole representative of the Philippine government in international talks on food safety regulations, (instead of previous individual lobbies by private sector groups) – will make it easier to negotiate with importing countries and recognized world regulatory bodies such as the CAC and UN-FAO.