Food firms told to comply with Japan’s new food safety rules

The Department of Agriculture (DA) has ordered local food and agriculture producers to ensure their compliance with Japan’s new food safety standards or face rejection or an outright ban of their products.

A DA official said Japan will shortly be enforcing a so-called "positive list system" that will set maximum residue limits (MRLs) on both fresh and processed foods.

"Local exporters should carefully monitor the Food Safety Group Meeting to be held by Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) on Sept. 2. Once established, the positive list system will ban the distribution of foods that contain agricultural chemicals above a certain level of MRLs. This will include agricultural products, animal products, or seafood," the official said.

The positive list system, which establishes MRLs in agricultural pesticides, insecticides, fertilizers, veterinary drugs and feed additives, is based on Japan’s revised Food Sanitation Law which will be enforced starting May 2006.

The MHLW said the system aims to ensure public health and avoid unnecessary disruption in food trade when the Japanese positive list system becomes effective.

Previously, the DA official said Philippine food exporters should take the positive list system seriously and be more cautious in their production and handling systems.

"What is likely to happen and which unfortunately happened before is that a shipment, even just a single shipment found exceeding the MRLs will affect not just the individual producer or exporter, it will affect the rest of the shipment that came with the contaminated item," he said.

He said local food exporters should be coordinating with agencies like the DA, DOH and the Bureau of Food and Drugs to establish a system wherein the source of contaminated food items can be easily traced, and proper sanctions be imposed on violators.

The first draft shows the provisional MRLs for 647 agricultural chemicals. As of July 2004, MRLs for 242 pesticides and 30 veterinary drugs have been enforced.

Currently, the Philippines enjoys the privilege of being included in the positive list. This allows the country access to Japan’s growing market for tropical fruits and vegetables.

In 2002, the Japanese government banned the country’s exports of okra after the chemicals found MRLs in this commodity. Filipino okra producers had to be subjected to rigid MRL testing and monitoring before they could resume exports of the high-value crop.

The MHLW is now asking foreign countries to make requests for establishing or revising MRLs for agricultural chemicals when these chemicals are newly approved for foods exported to Japan.

The risk assessment on chemicals will be conducted by Japan’s Food Safety Commission, based on the Food Safety Basic Law.