Prevention, Awareness & Partnership (PAP): Three Critical Elements to Strengthen Food Safety on National and Firm Levels

Food safety policies and regulations are indispensable elements of any national food safety system. They are tools used to formalize and look after food production and other relevant operations.   

The way food safety policies and regulations are developed, implemented and enforced, as well as the level of awareness about these regulations, significantly affect food industry development and impact the efficiency of national food safety systems.  However, this reality is not always considered when improving business environments and reforming the food sector. 

In the best case scenario, setting up or improving any national food safety system starts with the development and adoption of a national food safety strategy and a food law framework, where prevention is the basis for the system.     

National food safety laws could be called a constitution for the food industry, one that stipulates basic principles that the national food safety system is based on, along with rights and obligations of food business, state authorities, and consumers.   

It is natural that provisions of the national food law should be known and followed by those who work in the industry, as traffic rules are by drivers. There is no need to explain why, as in both cases human lives are on the line. Unfortunately, this is not the case in countries where food safety systems are weak and need a major shake-up or are under development. In these cases, food businesses pay little attention to food safety regulations. There are numerous reasons why such situations occur.  It could be due to a weak law enforcement system or flawed national food safety rules.  For instance, food safety regulations could be outdated or overly prescriptive, or contradictive and vague, or adopted beyond the national context.  It could also be due to a lack of understanding of national regulations, or low awareness of newly adopted rules.  If these are the case, it shows a need to shift the focus of national food safety policies to prevention and protection. National food safety requirements must be clear, concise, and well explained to its target audience to ensure elimination or minimization of risks during food production and to prevent potential food poisoning outbreaks.  

While discussions on the need to comply with domestic food safety requirements are still happening in countries with weak food safety systems, the importance of knowing and following food safety requirements for export markets is well understood by food businesses everywhere. If not, they will not enter new markets. We discussed this recently with food businesses from Kenya and Myanmar, food safety authority from Ukraine, and a development agency from Africa during our IFC Webinar, “Food Safety Regulations: Know Your Way.” You may find the recording of this event, as well as of other IFC Food Safety Handbook webinars here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7832903

If you are searching for key food safety requirements in developed markets and resources to learn the above-mentioned in details, you may check IFC Food Safety Handbook, Chapter 2 on Principal Food Safety Regulations: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/33547  

For those who are involved in the reform of national food safety systems, particularly its regulatory dimension, it might be useful to read the Food Safety Regulatory Toolkit developed by the World Bank Group, where guiding principles for food safety reform are explained. You will find a link to the publication, as well as to other documents that might be useful on our website: www.ifc.org/foodsafety 

One of principles of food safety reform emphasized in the Food Safety Regulatory Toolkit is the harmonization of national rules and measures with international standards. This is entirely justified. It is essential for implementation of a scientifically sound system in the country and let countries easily communicate with each other when trading food.  

At the same time, there are cases when the food industry struggles to harmonize national food safety regulations with international standards. Often, it is a result of a weak awareness on the need for reforms. Food businesses and consumers just don’t see the benefits of improved food safety legislation and are uncertain about their value. At the same time, a well-planned awareness campaign could be extremely effective when implementing new approaches based on the Codex Alimentarius to enhance national food safety systems and create a better regulatory environment for the food industry.  When planning awareness events linked to changes in food safety regulations, it is critical to engage the private sector including food businesses and consumers. Otherwise, there is a risk of not reaching the target audience. Mentioned engagement is desired to be initiated at the very first stage of the reform when discussing need, solutions and implementation tools. 

However, it is typical for many developing countries not to involve food businesses in the development of national food safety policy and regulatory frameworks. Often, the decision makers in mentioned economies don’t see how co-regulation mechanisms based on partnership with business could help to implement new rules. Thus, they consider standard law enforcement approaches based on monitoring and reacting to law violations as the only way to improve food safety in the country and don’t collaborate with food industry proactively.  At the same time, the experience of Australia and New Zealand, Canada, the EU, and US shows that efficiency of national food safety systems increases, and level of food safety improves when there is a strong partnership of government, food industry and consumers in the country. This could be easily explained, as a shared decision-making process, one of key elements of public-private partnership, brings together variety of skills, resources and perspectives, often in innovative ways, to find out the required solution and reach the needed outcome.  This will improve business environment for national food industry. 

Thus, partnership and collaboration with all involved is another prerequisite required for creation of strong national food safety system in addition to prevention and awareness mentioned above.

Same three elements are also critical for a buildup of an efficient food safety management system on firm level, where food safety management procedures are aimed to prevent production of unsafe food, where these procedures should be well-known and understood by relevant staff, where company management need consider company staff as best partners in creating best food.  

This three elements formula (prevention, awareness & partnership) or PAP approach is always followed by IFC when supporting governments and food business activities aimed to improve food safety.

Learn more about IFC’s work in Food Safety www.ifc.org/foodsafety  

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