17/02/2010

In a speech made before the Spanish Senate’s Commission for Health and Consumer Affairs, the President of the Spanish Agency for Food Safety and Nutrition (AESAN), Roberto Sabrido, outlined the Food Safety Strategy, which he said was “aimed at strengthening coordination between the various Public Administrations in Spain and at increasing harmonisation between national and EU food safety policies”.

Activities during the first semester of the year will be marked by the Spanish Presidency of the European Union. With regard to food safety, the Spanish Government’s main priorities will be the continued development of a set of rules, specifically with regard to consumer information, new foodstuffs and dietetic products.

Another strategic priority for the Spanish Presidency, given the health repercussions that obesity has and its continuing growth in recent years, is to push ahead with plans to fight obesity in accordance with the European Commission White Paper on Nutrition, Overweight and Obesity-related Health Issues of May 2007.

Sabrido announced that during the Presidency there would be three meetings: two of them to be held in Spain for the first time, the DG SANCO High Level Group on Nutrition and Physical Activity, and EFSA’s (European Food Safety Agency) Advisory Forum, which took place last week in Seville. The other meeting, he said, would be an International Conference on the presidency’s regulatory priorities specifically with regard to food supplements.

With regard to the Draft Food Safety and Nutrition Bill, the AESAN President informed the Commission that the public consultation phase was now complete, during which AESAN had received 81 proposals and comments from various organisations, including most of the Autonomous Communities (Spanish regional authorities), the Federation of Food and Drink Industries (FIAB), the Council of Consumers and Users and the Economic and Social Council.

The ASEAN President also reported that the National Plan for Official Controls in the Food Chain (2011-2015) is being finalised, in line with community requirements, as a basic planning and coordination tool for safety in the food chain, in collaboration with the Ministry for the Environment and Rural and Marine Affairs and with regional governments.

Community law states that Member States must ensure that food legislation is enforced and that they must monitor and verify that companies operating in the food and feed industry fulfil the relevant food legislation requirements during all stages of production, processing and distribution, whilst also observing the rules on animal health and welfare.

Some of AESAN’s priorities include the auditing of Official Checks, in collaboration with regional governments, so that there is uniformity in criteria when carrying out these tasks; participation in the community’s coordinated monitoring programme on the prevalence of listeria monocytogenes in certain ready-to-eat foods, following the increase in the prevalence of Listeria across the EU over the last five years; and the review of the SCIRI (Coordinated System of Rapid Information Exchange) management system.

In addition, a definitive database on the composition of foods consumed in Spain is in the final stages of production, which will help in the management of possible food and health alerts. Until now analyses in this field, carried out by various researchers and universities, have been “scattered”, and AESAN therefore intends to “collect and integrate” them into a single database which will be available to any investigator.

Furthermore, as the President explained during the presentation of the agency’s action plan for 2010, work is continuing on the updating of the database on food additives in Spain, with notifications of the launch of new products being sent from regional governments.

The aim in each case is to improve scientific coordination and IT support for the public health register of foods and food products in readiness for possible future initiatives.

At the same time, and within the framework of the NAOS Strategy, Sabrido reminded his audience of plans for research into the main food sources of fats and sugars in order to set up a programme for reducing the energy content of food, similar to the one already implemented with salt.

In this way the objective is that “citizens might have a choice of foods with a lower energy content”, and for which he emphasized the need to recognize “the starting-off point” so as to be able to set appropriate targets and timescales.

COMPLIANCE WITH THE PAOSCODE

Among the issues covered by this ruling are the legal backing for the prevention of obesity, and food advertising, especially that aimed at minors. In this aspect Sabrido mentioned the food and drink industry’s support for the PAOS code, created for the self-regulation of advertising in the sector.

In fact, Sabrido praised advertisers’ commitment to making and broadcasting adverts via the communications media, explaining that during 2009 there had been 407 consultations on advertising projects aimed at minors, 20 of which were rejected and a further 150 had to be modified prior to broadcasting.

Staying with this same age group, Sabrido highlighted the work being carried out by AESAN to promote healthy eating habits both at home and at school in the fight against obesity. In this respect he pointed out that a document is being finalised containing nutritional recommendations for school canteens.