The Philippine Department of Agriculture (DA) has announced plans to pilot test starting this month a proposed food safety risk management system intended to improve the government’s food safety inspection, assessment, and risk control processes.
Dr. Rico Capulong of the Bureau of Animal Industry said the DA’s Trade Enabling Risk Management Systems (TERMS) program will be on trial run from February until June this year.
The project consisting of four pilot activities seeks to enhance the agency’s monitoring, analysis, and management of food safety risks at airports, seaports, and markets in order to raise the agricultural sector’s competitiveness and tighten food security measures in the country.
There is a mismatch between the current Philippine inspection system for the sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) risks of agricultural products and the way commodities are being handled, Capulong explained in a recent presentation during a recent meeting of the technical working group on anti-smuggling of the National Competitiveness Council (NCC).
He said some goods with high SPS risks are being poorly managed or not managed at all, raising the chances of them being brought in by passengers at airports as gifts. Pests could also enter the country’s ports in sea containers and in equipment if not properly detected.
On the other hand, some goods with low SPS risks, such as frozen vegetables, are being excessively managed, raising product costs unnecessarily.
At the same time, current inspection procedures at ports do not match the potential risks of commodities. Animal feeds and fertilizers, for instance, may or may not have to go through inspection, depending on whether these are flagged by Customs.
“The pilot activities aim to address the risk categories with the appropriate level of interventions,” said Capulong.
TERMS will involve four key pilot activities. One entails improving the information-collection processes of the DA in assessing SPS and food safety risks. This pilot will study how three serious pests or diseases-avian influenza and fruit fly and shrimp diseases-could possibly enter the Philippines, and how risk management practices can be made more effective, said Capulong.
The second key activity seeks to raise SPS risk awareness at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).
The DA will put up LED signage to announce to incoming passengers the products which are not allowed to be brought in. Dump bins will also be placed in strategic areas at the NAIA for the immediate disposal of prohibited products carried by passengers.
To strengthen quarantine protocols and visibility, the DA also intends to change the current practice of the “2-day/24-hour shift” of quarantine officers assigned at the NAIA and revert to the eight-hour shift per day per staff.
The third pilot undertaking involves carrying out a targeted border inspection system at the Port of Manila, in which only random inspections will be conducted on low-risk commodities including frozen salmon, frozen potatoes, and chicken leg quarters.
This strategy, said Capulong, will enable the agency to focus its resources and regulatory activities on high-risk agricultural imports and high-risk pests and diseases.
“This will also facilitate trade in products that are safe from serious pests and diseases,” he added.
Finally, the agency will undertake surveillance of domestic retail and wholesale markets in coordination with local government units, the Bureau of Customs, and other concerned agencies. The objective of this market surveillance campaign is to monitor the sale of imported agricultural products in local markets to check that sellers are complying with SPS requirements. – Philexport News and Features
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