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Monitoring businesses, not products, pays off

Says top official of Danish food authority
Sohel Parvez, back from Copenhagen
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A NYONE following news reports is aware that various authorities and agencies here are checking food items in markets and destroying those found to be adulterated, substandard or unsafe.
But if you look to Denmark, you will see something new.
The Nordic country, known for producing safe food, focuses more on checking businesses than checking products to ensure that the foods, be that fresh, packaged or prepared, are produced and served to consumers in a safe manner following the right procedures.
“We have gone from controlling or checking products to checking businesses. We check that businesses do their jobs rightly and they have correct procedures and are able to produce or sell products safely,” said Morten Carlmann Andersen, special adviser of the international cooperation division of the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration (DVFA).
“Our control system is based on the principle that the responsibility for food safety is that of the producer or the business operator, not the government organisations,” he said in an interview with The Daily Star in Copenhagen earlier this month.
He said getting all the products checked by the government authority would be very time-consuming and would require a lot of resources. When businesses take the responsibility of ensuring food safety of their products, it saves both time and resources.
“We want companies to be responsible for the products they produce. It gives ownership, promotes greater responsibility within the companies and ensures greater partnership between companies and government authorities,” he said.
For Andersen, the idea comes from the goal of establishing a system where authorities will frame rules and procedures and help food business operators produce safe and quality foods.
“If something is not correct and companies are trying to do it right, we help them to do it right. Our idea is not to go and punish them but to make sure that whatever was wrong is fixed and is not repeated in the future.”
“There is no point in punishing someone for doing something right now and then not having it right in the future. We would much rather not punish them and have it right in the future,” said Andersen.
In order to ensure the production of safe food, the Danish authorities have established a traceability system from farm to fork so that they can trace the source whenever any problem occurs.
“That is the way, we set up rules that help businesses to do the right things,” he said.
If there is a problem in any product, the DVFA asks the business for the source and it has to answer. Otherwise, it faces sanctions.
“When you start doing that then all of a sudden you do not need to do the checking, they do the checking. Because they have to be able to tell you this. If not, either we help them do it or if they do it on purpose we sanction them. Ultimately, we can say you cannot operate as a business if you do not do this,” said Andersen.
To establish a safe value chain, the DVFA under the Ministry of Environment and Food of Denmark collects samples of ingredients of food, feeds, additives, aromas, drugs, pesticide, soil and pests and tests those in its laboratories on a regular basis. This is used to secure a risk-based approach to inspections.
At the same time, the authorities have also developed an incentive mechanism so that producers and business operators comply with rules.
For example, it provides a good amount of compensation so that farmers report outbreaks of disease in animals and help the government in its control and eradication.
Andersen, giving the example of the DVFA’s Smiley Scheme under which food businesses are given four types of smiley symbols from worst to best based on inspection reports, said the frequency of unannounced inspections by the DVFA reduces if food businesses do things well.
“If then you have problems and do not complying with rules properly, we will come more often and you will have to pay to do the controls.”
In order to establish food safety from farm to fork, Denmark merged several institutions into one to get one comprehensive responsible institution for food safety. It is now the DVFA.
“So, if there is lead in the milk at the farm that is their (DVFA) responsibility. If there is lead in milk in the super market, that is their responsibility too.”
Andersen said food safety system in Denmark is the result of general development of the country over centuries. And the level of education of people plays an important role in ensuring food safety throughout the value chain.
And Bangladesh can go gradually to develop a well-functioning system to ensure safe food for all.
“It takes time. It takes times to mature. Transition cannot be done very quickly,” he said, adding that the requirements can be set based on the educational level attained by the target group and their ability to abide by it.
“For instance, if it is street vender cooking meals, you need to tell him that you need to have clean water. You (street vendor) need to wash your hands whenever you are done. There are the few things that they can understand and that will be the basis there. If it’s a little bit bigger operator, then you would have demands that are little bit higher.”
Andersen said a company should focus on winning the trust of people in order to do good business.
“I think, credibility, openness, willingness to cooperate and partnership are going to be key in the future and you see it in many businesses globally.”
At the same time, accountability of stakeholders is important. Because, if no one is held accountable, results will continue to be bad, he said.
Andersen also talked on exporting foods. He said cheap labour is an advantage for Bangladesh whereas labour cost in Denmark—one of the leading food exporting countries—is very high.
“So, if you can get a product that people believe in, you will more often be able to produce it cheaper than we can. So, you have the opportunity to do something,” he said.
But he said companies need to be able to prove that their products are safe, sustainable, and are of good quality.
“I think there is no shortcut. There is no easy fix. I think you need to work on the entire system. You need to prove that you can do this.”
Morten Carlmann Andersen