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Alexandria Chamber of Commerce has recently held a lecture entitle "Food Safety in Egypt amidst Present Challenges and Future Hopes”.
During the lecture, Dr. Hussein Mansour, head of the unit entitled to form the new food safety authority, said the draft law for establishing the authority will be presented to the parliament in its upcoming session in November.
The establishment of this authority was initiated by the Minister of Trade and Industry, Eng. Rashid Mohamed Rashid with the support of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Agriculture. It will be responsible for food safety and consumer protection through the provision of sound data and guidance to deal with processed or genetically modified food in accordance with food safety standards.
He said the strategic plan for the new draft law includes a revision of all Egyptian laws and legislation that deal with food safety since 1893, including around 2446 other legislations. He pointed out the need for the authority to apply food safety standards on imported food the same way it does for locally produced foodstuff. He said that adopting the draft law will cancel all the laws and enforce one food safety law in the country.
Mansour added that the study which will be conducted by the food safety authority will monitor the foods consumed by Egyptians of different age groups. Studies in Egypt based on US statistics have revealed that the cost of food spoilage costs the country 144 million Egyptian pounds.
He also noted that one third of the Egyptian trade - which exceeds 100 billion Egyptian pounds annually - is directly related to food production projects, which keeps the food production sector unaffected by the global financial crisis.
Mansour pointed out that the statistics of the Information and Decision Support Center show that Egyptians spend around 45 percent of their annual income on food, while Egyptian food exports in 2007 reached 1.2 billion dollars.
Mansour, attributed the low level of consumer protection in terms of food safety to the lack of data on food, food-borne diseases and commercial fraud related to food. Around half a million food fraud issues are registered every year. He also called for spreading awareness among the citizens on food safety standards and the importance of taking care of consumers’ health.
He said the food safety authority will make sure that international food safety standards are applied. The authority will be responsible for food right from the harvest or breeding stage (for livestock) until it reaches the consumer.