Food standards yet to be established: Officials
Food standards yet to be established: Officials
JAKARTA (JP): Health officials say Indonesian food manufacturers are suffering at an international trade level due to their inability to meet certain standards.
Ading Suryana, Director of Food and Beverage Supervision under the Ministry of Health, said here yesterday that almost 80 percent of the 1,100 registered food firms do not meet standards of, among other things, hygiene and labeling.
He cited the tendency of incorrect labels being placed on products and other instances of poor quality control, which once resulted in a product being contaminated with rat urine.
He added that an estimated 500,000 food manufacturers are still unregistered.
On top of that, Ading pointed out, the country is now flooded with imported food products, which are difficult to monitor.
"Indonesia is now flooded with imported foods, especially fruit, whose quality we suspect," said Sumpeno Putro of the Ministry of Agriculture.
"But we do not have the legal instruments to withhold (the products)," said Sumpeno, who is head of the ministry's center of agribusiness accreditation and standardization.
"We are still establishing health standards, such as the permitted residue of pesticides in food (for imported products)," he said.
Indonesia has participated in international talks on standardization since 1975.
Wisnu Katim, the Director General of Food and Drug Supervision at the Ministry of Health, said yesterday that the process of formulating food standards to protect consumers has been too slow.
It is urgent for Indonesia to complete its regulations if it wants to compete on the world market, Wisnu said.
"Many of our exports are already withheld or rejected," said Sumpeno.
Wisnu said the process is partially slowed by the step-by-step regional negotiations within the food standardization body under the United Nations, called the Codex Alimentarius Commission.
National standards must be suggested to the Commission "as long as they are truly intended to protect consumers, and not technical barriers (to imports)," said Sumpeno.
The completion of an inspection system of food imports and exports, he stressed, is urgent in the interest of both consumers and exporters.
Data from the United States Food and Drug Administration show that the few Indonesian exporters that have met U.S. standards include firms producing baby food and fishery products.
Wisnu could not say when the government expects to complete the standards.
However, he said, the United States hopes all Indonesian exporters will meet international standards by 1996.
To inform companies of existing food standards, the health and agriculture ministries plan to hold a one-day seminar on Nov. 8.
The talks will be sponsored by the Indonesian branch of a non- governmental organization called the International Life Science Institute. The organization provides consultancy on nutrition, food security and toxicology to the World Health Organization.
The officials said industries will eventually have a "one gate policy" to check the quality of their products and acquire certificates.
Currently, importers check products directly with exporters, or request quality checks either by the state-owned Sucofindo surveyor company or the Ministry of Health. (anr)