By Sumudu Chamara
Sri Lanka once was a country that was quite capable of producing the food it wanted, and traditional knowledge and practices made this possible. With time, due to a multitude of reasons, Sri Lanka lost that status, and the decline of the agriculture sector compelled the country to import all types of food items.
Like all previous governments had done, the incumbent Government vowed to revive the country’s agriculture sector, and the ban on the importation of several crops and chemical fertilisers received mixed feedback from the farmers and consumers.
However, it is not only economy-related aspects that affect the country’s agriculture sector. The lack of new knowledge on methods to increase yields, post-harvest crop wastage, and also the lack of knowledge about matters that affect the market and consumers, such as food safety and quality, continue to affect the sector.
World Food Safety Day
Yesterday (7) marked the third World Food Safety Day, a Day observed annually, which, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), is intended to draw attention and inspire action to help prevent, detect, and manage food-borne risks contributing to food security, human health, economic prosperity, agriculture, market access, tourism, and sustainable development.
According to the United Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), food safety refers to the handling, storing, and preparing of food to prevent infection and to help make sure that food contains enough nutrients for the consumers to have a healthy diet.
In 2018, the UN General Assembly adopted a Resolution naming 7 June as World Food Safety Day, taking into account the global situation as far as food-borne diseases are concerned, and in 2019, the first World Food Safety Day was observed in collaboration with the WHO and the FAO.
The Resolution stressed that there is no food security without food safety, and that in a world where the food supply chain has become more complex, any adverse food safety incident may have global negative effects on public health, trade, and the economy. It also notes that improving food safety contributes positively to trade, employment and poverty alleviation.
This year’s World Food Safety Day’s theme is “safe food now for a healthy tomorrow”, and in celebration of this year’s World Food Safety Day, the WHO and FAO called for several actions, including ensuring safe and nutritious food, agriculturalists and food producers adopting good practices, business operators making sure that the food is safe, consumers learning about safe and healthy food, and working together for safe food and good health.
With regard to this year’s World Food Safety Day, the WHO and FAO noted that only when food is safe will it meet dietary needs and help ensure that everyone can live an active and healthy life, which is called the “utilisation dimension of food security”.
Safe food is a result of food safety practices being employed across the food chain, the two Organisations added.
Adding that safe food is essential to human health and well being, the two Organisations said that the WHO has estimated that more than 600 million people fall ill and 420,000 die every year from eating food contaminated with bacteria, viruses, parasites, toxins, and chemicals. “However, these numbers represent only ‘the tip of the iceberg’ as comprehensive surveillance data for food-borne illnesses is not available everywhere,” they added.
With regard to the economic aspects of ensuring food safety, or investing in food safety to reap future rewards, they added: “Safe food production improves economic opportunities by enabling market access and productivity. At the same time, good practices along the supply chain improve sustainability, and minimise environmental damage and the amount of agricultural product that has to be discarded. Unsafe or contaminated food leads to trade rejections, economic losses, and food loss and waste.”
The two Organisations emphasised that the “one health” approach improves food safety and said that food safety requires a holistic approach that recognises the connection between the health of people, animals, plants, and the environment. Also, they added that animal and plant health is critical to agriculture producing enough food to feed the world, and that keeping animals healthy will also minimise the risk of zoonotic pathogens (disease-causing organisms that can be transmitted between animals and humans), antimicrobial-resistant organisms, and more. Moreover, they said that ensuring food safety goes beyond merely examining the physical condition of food, and that it involves a multitude of aspects including food production, processing, handling, and preparation-related practices.
Food safety in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka’s attention towards food safety, or consumers’ desire to obtain healthy and quality food items, increased after coconut oil that contained carcinogenic aflatoxins was found early this year. The incident, or rather, how the Sri Lanka Standards Institute (SLSI) and the Sri Lanka Customs handled this situation, caused controversy and led to a number of raids by the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA).
However, the good result it led to is that people started discussing the quality of the food items, especially the imported ones, available in the market, and their right to obtain healthy food items as consumers.
According to the Global Food Security Index 2020, a quantitative and qualitative benchmarking model constructed from 59 unique indicators that measure the drivers of food security in developing and developed countries, Sri Lanka has been ranked 75th out of 113 countries. Other countries in the region, namely India, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh, ranked 71, 77, 80, and 84, respectively.
To look into Sri Lanka’s situation concerning food safety, The Morning spoke to Prof. B.D. Rohitha Prasantha of the Food Science and Technology Department of the Agriculture Faculty of the University of Peradeniya, who said that the two major issues Sri Lanka is facing as far as food safety is concerned are the lack of awareness among the public, and the inadequacies in the existing policies and practices about the matter.
With regard to awareness, he said that on the one hand, Sri Lanka’s education system does not adequately educate people about food safety, and on the other hand, people’s attitudes about food, i.e. being more concerned about the taste and appearance and such than food safety, are also an issue. Speaking of the state of awareness among the people, he said that at the very least, people have not understood that the milk (sold in the form of milk powder) people consume in their day to day life is not even a natural food.
He added: “Another major concern is using food preservatives to prepare food. I do not oppose it; however, we have to be aware of how much to use, as using food preservatives excessively is not acceptable. These things have not been taught to the people.”
Prof. Prasantha added that when addressing matters pertaining to food safety, the political and commercial aspects hindering that process are posing a huge issue.
“In the same way Sri Lanka adheres to standards set by other countries when exporting goods, it should also set proper standards concerning goods that are being imported,” he noted, adding that when importing any goods, even non-food items, Sri Lanka tends to import low-quality products. He noted that a proper and quick testing procedure is of utmost importance, as both quality and time are important, and also because it is a good investment.
“Testing the quality of food items should be a regular process; if we fail to do that, we will face more and more non-communicable diseases,” he opined.
Expressing similar sentiments about the same matter, Movement for the Protection of Public Rights (MPPR) Convener Asela Sampath told The Morning: “One of the main reasons behind the increase in non-communicable diseases is the high amounts of additives and preservatives used in food items. There is no proper mechanism to regulate in that connection, and there is no authority to provide proper instructions or guidelines to use. Even though Sri Lanka has natural ingredients to enhance the quality of food items, there is a scarcity of such ingredients, and also there is no proper mechanism to control the market or prices.”
Sampath, when queried as to what the overall state of Sri Lanka’s food safety is and what factors have led to this situation, added that Sri Lanka’s food safety situation is not at a satisfactory level, claiming also that the country does not have a public institution that actively and properly regulates food items.
Speaking of post-harvest crop management, he added that on the one hand, there is no proper method to ensure that crops reach the sellers and consumers without damage, while on the other hand, there is no mechanism to give farmers a good price for their products. He noted that due to intermediaries, farmers get a very low income, and all these affect food safety and the quality of food items, as it causes post-harvest crop wastage and damage.
“Thus far, none of the leaders who ruled the country have come up with a proper method to ensure food safety. Even though some governments tried to implement certain projects to do that, those projects did not bring about significant change. Sri Lanka used to be the ‘great barn of the East’, but it is not so anymore.”
When questioned about recent incidents concerning Sri Lanka’s food security, Sampath alleged that most institutions tasked with ensuring the consumers right to obtain quality food items do not fulfill their duties properly. “It is because those institutions do not fulfill their duties properly that the consumers have had to fight with businessmen,” he opined.
Despite The Morning attempting to contact the officials of the SLSI and the Health Ministry’s Environmental Health, Occupational Health, and Food Safety Directorate, they were not reachable.
National policy, future steps
Following the issue pertaining to aflatoxins contained in coconut oil, Sri Lankan authorities also paid more attention to ensuring food security. While the CAA said that it had launched raids throughout the country, State Minister of Co-operative Services, Marketing Development and Consumer Protection Lasantha Alagiyawanna also said that new measures were being implemented concerning the quality of imported food items.
However, those who spoke with The Morning stressed that even though short term measures are important, more attention should be paid to taking long term solutions, including a national policy on food security.
When queried as to the immediate steps Sri Lanka can take to strengthen food safety, without relying solely on policy and procedural changes, Prof. Prasantha said: “Sharing knowledge and initiating a discussion is one of the most important steps. In fact, Sri Lanka’s media does not raise awareness about these matters, and people on the other hand do not seem to be interested in discussing such matters with their friends, even on the social media platforms that they spend a lot of time on. We talk about various parts of our body almost every day; why do we not discuss matters such as unsafe food that affect our entire body? However, conveying the message clearly without succumbing to political or other forces is important.”
Explaining further, he said: “Conveying the message based on proper data and research, with the aim of specific action, is also important. We have seen in Sri Lanka’s history that sometimes certain leaders tried to stop harmful food items to ensure food safety, but they merely talked about it and did not take proper action to change regulations and policies. Also, the knowledge that we spread should be accurate and based on factual data. However, due to the sharing of inaccurate and incomplete knowledge, sometimes, even if we could initiate a proper discourse, we cannot achieve tangible results.
“It is extremely important that we identify what specific issues need to be prioritised, and the failure to do so, leaves many more harmful food items in the market even whilst we get rid of less harmful food items.”
Adding that Sri Lanka should consider developing a food safety framework as an immediate action, he said that food regulations need to be updated at least every two years.
Also adding that Sri Lanka’s existing regulations and policies concerning food safety have many weaknesses, Prof. Prasantha said: “Sri Lanka does not have a proper policy aimed at ensuring food safety, even though some matters are covered through the Food Act. However, having an Act is not sufficient, as other countries have stronger policies. For example, many countries have banned Benzoic Acid, due to it being an allergen. But in Sri Lanka, there are various products that contain Benzoic Acid and cause allergies. Also, if we look at aflatoxins, which were discussed extensively recently, they were first identified in the 1960s, and there are a large number of other local products (food items) that contain aflatoxins. We have not set proper standards or updated our standards to deal with these situations.”
Therefore, he said that Sri Lanka must focus on developing a national policy, instead of merely responding to various incidents as and when they arise. He noted that a large number of countries do not allow any food item to enter into the country without a test to ascertain that the food item in question is in step with the country’s local standards.
Speaking of Sri Lanka’s situation, he added that even though there are various additives in various products that are being imported, since Sri Lanka does not have a national policy to deal with them, and since the authorities tend to take more corrective measures than preventive measures, these products keep coming into the country.
Meanwhile, Sampath was also of the opinion that Sri Lanka needs a national policy to ensure food safety, and that the involvement of both state and private stakeholders should be there to implement that policy.
Sampath suggested that a Presidential Task Force and a special committee should be set up to look into the state of food safety in the country, and that these groups should work hand in hand with civil organisations who are working towards the same objective. He added that without setting up a national policy, Sri Lanka would never be able to ensure food safety. Sampath added that such a national policy should include a mechanism to assist the public to know every detail about the composition of the food items available in the market, a proper pricing policy, giving a comprehensive training to those who manufacture food items with a focus on food safety, implementing a mechanism to replace outdated food preparing methods with modern methods, and a mechanism to reduce post-harvest crop wastage.
He noted that such a policy should cover all aspects of the food production system, starting from farmers to consumers. Expressing his opinion about laws and policies, Sampath added that many legal provisions pertaining to food safety and quality are based on the Food Act as amended enacted in 1980.
He noted: “Other countries have stern laws when it comes to laws concerning the quality of food items, for the well being of people. However, due to the unavailability of a proper mechanism in Sri Lanka, any food item of inferior quality can be imported for human consumption. Sri Lanka needs to update these laws that came into force as far back as 1980, as soon as possible.”
In addition, farmers’ groups too have emphasised that Sri Lanka needs a national policy to address post harvest crop wastage and flaws in the food processing processes.
However, according to those who spoke with The Morning, the process of assessing the quality of food items, or any goods for that matter, should be a regular activity. Addressing a situation after an issue about food safety arises, they said, would not benefit Sri Lanka in the long run.
Due to economic and traditional reasons, Sri Lanka has given more priority to the quantity of food items more than the quality, and standards too have declined as a result. However, prices keep increasing, and consumers should not hesitate to demand quality food for the money they pay. It is what will compel food manufacturers and importers and also the authorities to pay more attention to ensuring food safety standards.
Sri Lanka’s food safety: Cure over prevention
08 Jun 2021
Sri Lanka’s food safety: Cure over prevention
08 Jun 2021
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