Strategies for food safety needed to save children

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Representatives of the food industry and academicians emphasized on Thursday the importance of a clear strategy for food safety to prevent foodborne diseases, which claim the lives of thousands of children in developing countries every year.

Speaking at an international seminar on nutrition, they urged the government here to make action plans, which include the dissemination of knowledge of food safety and the close surveillance at all stages from food production to consumption.

The project manager of the Industry Council for Development (ICD)/World Health Organization Food Safety Project, John Crowther, asserted that putting food safety into a curriculum with a series of training courses for professionals who deal with food processing, technology and food preparation would effectively help settle problems related to foodborne diseases.

Crowther explained that diarrhea, the most common symptom of foodborne diseases, had been associated with one-fourth of all deaths of children under five years of age and kills four million annually.

In Indonesia there are 30 million to 60 million cases of foodborne diseases each year, caused either by contaminated food or water, and which has been one of the main underlying factors of poor health, he said.

"Preventative strategies should be put straight forward," Crowther told a media briefing on the sidelines of the seminar.

The one-day seminar was organized by the South East Asian Ministers of the Education Organization for Tropical Medicine and the Public Health Regional Center for Community Nutrition at the University of Indonesia (SEAMEO-TROPMED RCCN-UI) in coordination with ICD to commemorate the tenth year of their collaboration.

SEAMEO-TROPMED RCCN-UI Director Soemilah Sastroamidjojo said that the center had provided training and research in nutrition since 1970 and was the focal point of the food safety project in South East Asian countries.

Chairman of the seminar's organizing committee Doddy P. Partomihardjo pointed out that everyone should take responsibility for food safety and take the matter seriously "because, on average, one eats between 75,000 and 100,000 times during his/her entire life. So each time we eat, we should be sure that we eat safely."