ISLAMABAD: Defence Production Minister Rana Tanveer Hussain on Wednesday said, “Pakistan’s food industry is the 2nd largest and plays a key role in the country’s economic growth,” at a conference titled “Food Safety and Harmonisation: Shaping a Healthier Nation”, organised under the Ministry of Science and Technology with Nestlé Pakistan. The conference brought to light the need for harmonisation of food legislation in Pakistan to ensure food quality and standards which protect the health of consumers while facilitating trade at the domestic and international level. The minister said that “establishing harmonised food standard practices protect consumers and facilitate international trade. Our political leadership needs to resolve the issue of having a different standard for each province. It is unfortunate that we don’t have a national food standards council yet. Provincial food authorities should play a positive and proactive role in promoting industry and future investments. This issue is not a matter of personal ego rather the adoption of international best practices. The national conference organised today will give new direction to scientists, regulators and other stakeholders for a way forward on harmonisation of food standard and safety.” The outgoing Codex Alimentarius Commission Chairperson Awilo Ochieng Pernet in her keynote address commented, “The effective implementation of food safety and standards enable access of national products of regional and international markets. Putting food safety and national food rules on political agenda is the first step towards economic growth for Pakistan.” Nestlé Pakistan Managing Director & CEO and Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI) Vice President Bruno Olierhoek stressed, “Pakistan should have one national food council on federal level, responsible for making one national food standard for the whole country while all provincial food authorities should be responsible for enforcing these standards. These standards must be harmonised with Codex international standards so that import and export can also be facilitated. The conference also had two technical sessions on food harmonisation and food safety which were chaired by National Food Security and Research Ministry Senior Advisor Malik Zahoor Ahmad and National Institute of Food Science and Technology Director General Prof Dr Tahir Zahoor. The two sessions saw participation from Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) Director General Khalid Siddiq, Pakistan Council for Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) Chairman Muhammad Ashraf and Punjab Food Authority (PFA) Director General Noorul Amin Mengal. The two sessions concluded that it was harmonisation of safe food rules was essential across Pakistan. Unilever Pakistan CEO was also in attendance at the conference. Speaking at the valedictory session, Commerce Minister Muhammad Pervez Malik commented, “Unsafe food causes more than 200 million deaths across the globe. Food safety is a cross cutting issue and requires participation from all stakeholders including: consumers, private sector, governing bodies and regulators. It is only when we have harmonised standards based on global standards like Codex that we will have access to international markets. We are one nation, let’s make our food safe and let’s harmonise ourselves”. Board of Investment (BOI) Secretary Azhar Ali Chaudhry in his concluding remarks said, “Food safety and harmonisation of standards both are extremely important. Harmonisation is an integral part of BOI’s objectives to create an investment friendly environment. Food sector is sensitive as food is difficult to manage without set standards. Adopting internationally accepted standards are conducive to trade and also likely to reduce costs to develop nation specific standards. Science and Technology Ministry and Agriculture Ministry should take steps to harmonise food standards to encourage investment.” Globally, EU is a good example of food harmonisation. 27 countries of European Union have one food standard that is approved by EU Commission. All food industries in Europe follow the same standards while each country is responsible for enforcing those standards. Published in Daily Times, November 24nd 2017.