5th EU-ASEAN Regional Workshop on Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

 (kplnet) The European Commission is organising the 5th EU-ASEAN Regional Workshop on Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed for over 50 officials from the ASEAN countries during 24-26 January in Vientiane Capital, according to press release of EU yesterday.
The workshop was chaired by Director of General Office of Food and Drug Department of Ministry of Health, Dr. Somthavy Changvisommid.
Attending the workshop was Charged Affaires of the EU to Laos, Mr. Michel Goffin and relevant officials of both sides.
This workshop is aims to explain the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) which has been implemented in Europe for more than 30 years as a tool for real-time communication to ensure food safety as well as facilitating trade.
The better understanding of the system would be more beneficial for ASEAN to facilitate trade with the EU.
This workshop is part of the Better Training for Safer Food Programme. The workshop should contribute to the maintenance of sustainable RASFF in the ASEAN region at both national and regional levels it should also help to deepen cooperation with the EU RASFF.
The EU is the worlds larges importer of agricultural products. We import agricultural products from the developing countries more than those from the US, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Canada putting together. Therefore, it has been an interest of the EU to better inform key trading partners, including ASEAN, of its food safety rules and regulations, said Mr. Goffin, Charged Affaires of the EU Delegation at the opening of the workshop.
RASFFs provide control authorities with effective tools for information exchange on food safety measures. In the EU, the RASFF consists of a network comprising EU Member States and the other European Economic Area countries, the Commission and the European Food and Safety Authority when a network member has information to other members.
The ASEAN Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (ARASFF) was established six year ago through a cooperative project between European Commission and Thai Government on the basis of the European RASFF and has seven active members namely Cambodia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Brunei, Indonesia and Singapore currently hold observer status. Following endorsement of ARASFF by the July 2009 senior officials Meeting of ASEAN Ministers of Agriculture and Forestry, competent authorities have moved towards creation of national rapid alert systems.