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Global food trade an extreme challenge for consumer protection
Global food trade not only brings benefits in terms of food availability, but also poses a significant challenge to consumer health protection. In the past, already contaminated foods have led to mass infections, with the 2011 EHEC epidemic probably the most well-known incident of this kind.
"Noroviruses on imported strawberries, melamine additives in dairy products or incorrectly declared olive oil - such occurrences have long since become an international dimension," warns the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) in a recent press release. The global food trade poses new challenges for consumer health protection, which will be discussed at the international symposium "Risks along global food commodity chains" of the BfR on 18 and 19 February 2016 in Berlin.
The global food chains in the food trade pose enormous challenges for consumer protection. (Image: Gina Sanders / fotolia.com) How safe is our food?
Among other things, the symposium will address the question of how safe our food is in the face of globalized food production and what challenges this poses to consumer health protection. "For consumers, the increasing globalization of the food trade makes it possible to consume virtually all types of food at any time and anywhere in the world," explains BfR President Professor Dr. med. Dr. Andreas Hensel. But the "worldwide and sometimes confusing supply chains also make completely new demands on consumer health protection", continues Hensel. Together with international partners, BfR conducts research and evaluation work in this area, which should be further intensified and promoted.
Challenge for business and regulatory authorities
According to the BfR, global food trade plays an important role for Germany. In 2014, Germany imported food and drink worth 75.5 billion euros, with about three-quarters of these imports / imports coming from other European countries. However, food imports from North and South America and Asia would also become increasingly important. "The increasing complexity and internationalization of commodity chains, which are increasingly taking on the character of networks, are placing the participating food and feed companies in front of more and more extensive tasks," warns the BfR. According to the experts, suitable procedures and systems have to be established here that can guarantee the safety of the products even if the legal and structural framework conditions differ worldwide. The responsible food safety authorities are faced with the same challenge as they have the task of assessing and controlling the effectiveness of companies' policies and procedures.
Ensuring safe food and feed
According to the BfR, the two-day symposium is specifically devoted to developments in the global and increasingly complex commodity chains of the last decade. The aim is to discuss the demands of global trade on the various players (from primary production to local distribution) as well as potential new public health issues. Another focus of the symposium will be the concrete activities to ensure safe food and feed. In this context, "in each case specific attention is drawn to the dangers in the area of primary production (feed and livestock) or in food production," reports the BfR. Also, intervention strategies to minimize potential health risks would be discussed.
Software systems should help
The BfR also claims to present its work and solutions in the field of global commodity chains at the symposium. For example, the development of various software systems is currently at the center of research at BfR. These systems aim to enable a risk assessment even for complex issues, according to the Institute's Communication. Another focus of research is new analytical approaches to ensure the authenticity of food, the BfR reports. With the help of so-called non-targeted methods, it should be possible "to record characteristic fingerprints of a food or feed and to verify them with a reference library." In the future, analytically challenging questions, such as the geographical origin of products, could be answered Experts. (Fp)