the federal level in order to make one national food standard for the whole country, with the Provincial Food Authorities being responsible for enforcing these standards. “These standards must be harmonized with CODEX International Standards so that import and export can also be facilitated. One Pakistan, One Food Rules,” he stated.
The conference also had two technical sessions on food harmonization and food safety, which were chaired by Malik Zahoor Ahmad, Senior Advisor, Federal Ministry of National Food Security and Research and Prof. Dr. Tahir Zahoor, Director General, National Institute of Food Science and Technology. The two sessions saw participation from Khalid Siddiq, Director General, Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority, Dr. Muhammad Ashraf, Chairman, Pakistan Council for Research in Water Resources, and Noor-ul-Amin Mengal, Director General, Punjab Food Authority. The two sessions concluded that it harmonization of safe food rules was essential across Pakistan. Also present at the conference was the CEO of Unilever Pakistan.
Speaking at the valedictory session, Minister for Commerce Muhammad Pervez asserted that unsafe food causes more than 200 million deaths across the globe. “Food safety is a cross cutting issue and requires participation from all stakeholders including consumers, private sector, governing bodies and regulators. It is only when we have harmonized standards based on global standards like Codex that we will have access to international markets. We are one nation, let’s make our food safe and let’s harmonize ourselves,” he urged.
In his concluding remarks, Secretary of the Board of Investment (BOI) Azhar Ali Chaudhry said, “Food sector is sensitive as food is difficult to manage without set standards. Adopting internationally accepted standards are conducive to trade and also likely to reduce costs to develop nation-specific standards. The Ministries of Science and Technology and Agriculture should take steps to harmonize food standards.”
Globally, the European Union is a great example of food harmonization as 27 EU countries have one food standard that is approved by EU Commission. All food industries in Europe follow the same standards while each country is responsible for enforcing those standards.