Food safety has taken a big step forward with the formal launch of the Asean Risk Assessment Centre for Food Safety (Arac) as the first of its kind in the region.
The establishment of Arac stems from a meeting of Asean health ministers in 2014 in Hanoi, where member countries commited to strengthen national food control systems and work together to contribute toward safe, quality food in the Asean community.
The 10 countries recognised that risk assessment is an important tool to provide scientific input in developing evidence-based food safety measures and capacity building for integrated risk assessment, said Dr S Subramaniam, Malaysia's public health minister, at the launching of the regional institute in Putrajaya. The institute's secretariat has been established in the Food Safety and Quality Division of the Ministry of Public Health of Malaysia.
The centre will help promote a wide range of regional cooperation programmes. It will help coordinate the conduct of food safety risk assessment, strengthen the capacity of Asean member states to undertake risk assessment, and facilitate sharing of information and experiences, said the minister
Arac would also help to compile and maintain a database on food consumption and other related data for risk assessment.
"Each country can work together. That is very important," said Dr Subramaniam.
"For example, if Thailand says 'we have problems [on food safety] and we need your help', I am sure the centre will help Thailand deal with such a situation. If we can define operating procedures whereby this can be done, I am sure, speaking for Malaysia, that we can respond to any countries to help them based on their requests."
Arac is also supported by cooperation with the European Union (EU) with an aim to raise the standards for the food safety industry in Asean in keeping with current scientific data.
"It is a very good measure to enhance common experiences among Asean countries, and bring experts and the scientific communities within Asean to actually work together, to actually come out with a common standard, research and platform," the minister said.
"This is important because as a region, we are not producing food just for our own local consumption. We produce food to export to other countries. Countries such as Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, when they export food to other countries, of course they have their expectation that the food will be up to the standard of food safety they have defined and it is up to our institution to meet those standards until there is no question."
Consequently, there is a need for Asean industry participants themselves to have higher awareness of assessing risks themselves, he cited.
"I suggest that we need the establishment of a common certification and accreditation system that could be internationally accredited. I am sure it will take time because each of our countries has its own evolution," he said, adding that such a proposal would be made to the Asean health ministers' meeting in Brunei later this year.
"With one [regional] certification, you can go to many countries in the world. You don't need to worry, otherwise you'd have to deal with every country with individual standards. That will make a lot of economic sense."
Dr Subramaniam said that Malaysia had major manufacturing companies that exported food to other countries and those exporters need certification.
"They need accreditation so that their food can be exported to anywhere. They have to bring themselves to a higher level. That is our aim and I hope that we can reach that state one day," he said.
Elsewhere in Asean, major processors in countries such as Indonesia and in Thailand understand the process of obtaining common certification to be able to export their products to anywhere in the world. Vietnamese producers also want to assure their food meets the same standards as in other countries such as Malaysia, he added.
"Three years ago, we had a crisis when the EU did not take our fish. But after we transformed our fishing industry to meet [the requirements], we can re-export to EU countries. Evolution is important in every country," he said.
Asean Secretary-General Le Luong Minh, who joined the Arac launch, said that having such a body would certainly benefit the region now that it has formed the Asean Economic Community (AEC).
"I am confident that it will benefit all Asean member states and their people," he said, adding that the centre would enhance coordination among member states. "Now the centre is just getting established. It will be developed in a more concrete way."
Food safety, he said, was an international issue and a challenging one, so all Asean member states should pay considerable attention to the issue.
"Arac is an important institution to pursue our objectives as a regional centre to coordinate food safety risks. It will help signify the strong commitment by the region to contribute to food safety and quality food," he said.