“Nine Reasons for Establishing a FSA”

“Though Dr. Hegarty’s remarks were covered in the report, we felt that his presentation on nine points for creating the Food Safety Agency were worth pointing out separately.”

Review of 9 points from Dr. Vincent Hegarty

According to Dr. Hegarty, Egypt has made much progress in the field of food safety and has achieved a lot since 2007. Dr. Hegarty has a unique perspective as an outsider (Irish by birth but American by adoption), but not a stranger as he has been to Egypt thirteen times since the 1980s. In his remarks, Dr. Hegarty gave nine reasons to encourage Egypt to create this new food safety authority in Egypt.

1) Keeping up to International Norms.
Other countries are creating food safety agencies, so Egypt better do it to. In the last 10 years the European Union set up European food safety authority. Unlike the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the US, this European system is less than 10 years old. The UK, in the wake of the Mad Cow Disease, decided they needed a food standards agency, as did Ireland. Likewise, Canada recognized that its food safety agency was not up to modern standards, it was scattered through a number of agencies, just like what is being found in Egypt. They created the Canadian food inspection agency which is one of the best in the world. Similarly, Australia/New Zealand combined the two countries food safety efforts into one food safety agency.

Everything that has taken place has only happened very recently. This is beneficial because Egypt can use a good role model to take the best and leave the worst. The time is now because the rest of the world is looking at Egypt. China is moving extensively and quickly in this area because the rest of the world is looking at them. If China wants export/import, it needs to get its food safety act together. He stressed that even though others were doing it, they weren’t doing it necessarily well and Egypt can learn from their mistakes. Lots of political manipulating and pushing and shoving to create the new labs and wasted a lot of time. Other people have not done it right and there are lessons to be learned from this.

2) The World Trade Organization ⁽¹⁾
- Prior to 1995, you could slap on a tariff or a quota to limit food exports/imports. But under the rules of the WTO this is illegal. Now, to keep out Egyptian food you need a scientific reason (high metal content, pesticide, toxin, etc) to claim why you don’t want an Egyptian food. So under those circumstances you need a unified and respected food safety agency that is going to defend the Egyptian food industry on all levels as it pertains to human health.

3) The World Trade Organization ⁽²⁾
- Egypt has only gone once on a case of WTO, when it took Thailand on the case of genetically modified soy oil used in canned tuna. In the future if Egypt has to go to the WTO on a trade issue, they will have to be as prepared as the other countries with established food agencies. This can only be done by one unified agency based on good science. In all cases of the WTO, you leave politics, culture, regionalism outside the door, because the scientific reason is the most important issue that is discussed in the WTO, it is the only basis of these decisions.

4) The Internet
Today, it is possible to easily download from US FDA the list of Egyptian foods that were rejected in the last 12 months. It is important that you can see the name of the Egyptian company, the city its located and the reason why it was rejected. Most of the reasons for rejection were not filthy or unsafe food, but rather ignorance. The exporters were not aware of the rules and regulations required by the FDA. The Internet is important because buyers access this list first of all, and will not give business to firms that have been banned.

At the Gulf Food Exhibition, Dr. Hegarty was impressed by the Egyptian food exporting companies there. There were three questions asked at all stands. What is your price? What is your quality? What is your safety?

Maybe Egyptian products were excellent in price and quality, but it is impossible to see bacteria, pesticides or contaminants. The only way you can be confident that the food is up to international safety standards is if the food coming from a country with a well regarded food safety agency.

5) Economics.
Food is an international trade commodity just like anything else. Last July, Dr. Hegarty was struck by the websites of the US, Canada, EU and Australia/New Zealand. These websites had positive things to say about the opportunities for export to Egypt but had negative comments on the multiplicity of agencies and tests that food had to go through to get into Egypt.

Economics in terms of importation and exportation are crucially important but there is another very important economic factor of public health. The number of days that are lost because of food safety are considerable in Egypt. To give some comparisons, he offered some statistics from the United States. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta noted that there were 5000-6000 deaths directly related to unsafe food, 350,000 annual hospitalizations due to unsafe food and 75 million people who get a dose of food poisoning because of unsafe food that leads to at least one day loss of work. That is one out of every four Americans will lose a day or more. That is an economic loss for the country. The tourist industry also has a number of food safety issues, need assurance that the food is safe so people don’t get sick when their visiting. People need to know that the food they eat while visiting will be safe.

6) Science.
You need a cluster of scientific expertise because WTO and others will only recognize good science. Dr. Vincent was impressed, then appalled that Egypt analyses every single food for every single malady. Egypt should base its analysis on good science, to make good risk assessment. It is important to analyze food products in the specific Egyptian context what food should be considered dangerous or risky.

7) Public awareness and the role of the consumer.
We are all consumers and we look to the government to ensure that food is up to safety standards. But the fact is that the biggest culprit in terms of unsafe food is private families in their kitchens. Food can be produced safe from farm to home, but how it is treated at your home is a major food safety issue. A food safety agency is needed to ensure public awareness and ensure that that industry, consumers and importers/exporters are aware…the Internet can help us with this.

8) From Police Agencies to Support Agencies.
Food Safety Agencies are changing rapidly from only policing (outlining punitive measures and enforcement of law) to a support, outreach and engagement approach. In this way, the Agency is taking the responsibility to help make firms aware so that Egyptian companies will never be rejected again. Today, there are not enough educational workshops to combat the ignorance that led to banning of foods but an outreach and engagement approach will help change this.

9) The Food Issues of Tomorrow.
Countries are doing alright with dealing with food safety issues today, but anyone who works in this area knows that the food issues of tomorrow will replace the food safety issues of today. Where does Egypt stand in regards to cloning of animals? Food eradiation? Genetic modification? Nanotechnology? To deal with these issues, Egypt will need an organized, credible, scientifically based agency.

In closing, he applauds Egypt for taking on this issue and taking it on in an open and energetic way. Egypt has come a long way in a very short period of time, but there is a long way to go.