Suspicious seafood: In April, mussels from Port Dickson found to have dangerous levels of biotoxins. — Filepic/The Star
WE Malaysians love our food, but perhaps it’s time we start thinking about the safety of our food as well.
Several cases of tainted food in the country have been reported in the past few months alone.
There were the mussels in Port Dickson found to have dangerous levels of biotoxins in them in April, the ban on two spice products suspected to contain pesticides in May, and a few cases of food poisoning in schools this month -- including the one in Gombak, Selangor, which resulted in the deaths of two people and over 90 others falling sick.
Then there were the global food safety scares – particularly the contaminated American dairy products, allegedly from an outbreak of bird flu at some of the country’s dairy farms.
All these cases have raised concerns about the effectiveness of our food safety regulatory system.
While experts say we have a robust set of food safety-related regulations in Malaysia, we also have to deal with enforcement issues, agencies working in silos, a lack of adequate training for food handlers, and insufficient public awareness of food safety.
Among the cases of tainted food recently, two spice products were banned from sale in Malaysia in May as they were suspected to contain pesticides. — YAP CHEE HONG/The Star
Who has jurisdiction?
“We have some of the best laws at the Asean level. But now, it’s more on the government agencies to take a much more active role in doing surveillance, doing inspections, and also to ensure that they test food at random,” says Datuk Indrani Thuraisingham, vice-president at the Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations (Fomca), which is a member of the National Food Safety and Nutrition Council.
The difficulties with enforcement may also lie in the scattered nature of the country’s food safety regulatory system. Unlike in the United States, for example, where there is a central agency in charge of every-thing to do with food safety, ie the Food and Drug Administration, Malaysia’s food safety system is spread out among many agencies. These include the Food Safety and Quality Division, the Quarantine and Inspection Services Department (better known as Maqis) and the Veterinary Services Department.
With this decentralised approach, the problem often becomes who will be the one to take action, says Indrani.
“We have the necessary agencies but because of their jurisdictional and sometimes territorial overlaps, then the argument among the agencies is, who has the jurisdiction? And that’s why sometimes things fall through the cracks.
“So that’s why I say we have fantastic laws but we work in silos. Why can’t we have that interagency coordination?” she asks.
ALSO READ: The food safety net
The food safety system indeed suffers from a lack of good enforcement, says Prof Dr Che Wan Jasimah Wan Mohamed Radzi, a food safety and security expert from Universiti Malaya.
Are food handlers properly trained?
But Prof Che Wan Jasimah also brings up concerns about proper training for those involved in the production and handling of food.
Training is not only important for food handlers to learn about proper sanitation while dealing with food, but also when it comes to the storage environment and equipment care, she says.
“Things like the storage temperature, chemicals used to protect the product from bacteria, or molasses infections, or sometimes they store the products near hazardous chemicals.
“There is also the problem of dirty equipment that has not been cleaned properly after being used many times,” she says.
“Now we have many international workers and I don’t think they understand our level of regulations. They might also have their own experiences from their home countries.
“We must also ask how much training is provided to workers to make them understand food safety issues better,” she adds.
Another area that could be improved, says Indrani, is for the government to set up some sort of hotline specifically for the public to lodge complaints or report incidents related to food safety.
Occasionally, Fomca gets a stray phone call from a consumer with a food safety complaint because he/she doesn’t know where else to call, but Indrani says there is not much Fomca can do aside from forwarding the complaint to the relevant agency.
“Why not set up some sort of hotline or something on WhatsApp so people can snap pictures of the food and send in their complaint directly to the relevant authorities?” she says.
This could also be part of streamlining food safety data, which should be made accessible to all agencies involved in food safety regulation, she adds.
Other data that should be readily shared among all relevant agencies to make their work easier would be how the food was procured, stored, prepared, and distributed, Indrani says.
‘Let us do the PR’
Indrani also laments that there is no proper food safety alert system in place.
A major stakeholder in the food safety discourse are the consumers, but Indrani says more work can be done to spread awareness among them about food safety precautions and concerns.
“Just issuing press statements is not enough. Internet penetration is not high especially in rural areas or among vulnerable communities.
“How will those people know if there is a food safety alert? We need to find ways to reach out to them.”
Indrani says agencies in charge of food safety should not be working in silos so that they can improve enforcement. — SAMUEL ONG/The Star
Food Safety and Quality Division senior director Norrani Eksan says the division receives food safety complaints from the public that are filtered through the Health Ministry’s Public Complaints Management System.
She acknowledges that there may still be work to be done regarding public awareness of food safety and the authorities in charge of it, though she points out that her division has been running consistent campaigns to raise awareness.
“We have teams at the district level to carry out awareness activities, we also have a programme on food safety for the younger generation to create awareness among the communities,” she says.
Indrani points out that this is one part of the food safety equation that civil society organisations can help out with, and she urges the government to consider working with them to raise food safety awareness.
“Agencies should focus on surveillance, enforcement, monitoring, prosecution, and policymaking.
“Let civil society and NGOs do the public relations work,” she says.
Of course food safety is important because it concerns what we are directly putting into our bodies but Prof Che Wan Jasimah reminds us that there are other benefits to prioritising food safety aside from reducing foodborne illnesses among the public.
“Ongoing food safety improvements can also yield economic and social benefits,” she says, as it will improve business confidence in our food industries.
“Food safety is everyone’s business,” reminds Norrani.
