According to general director of the National Office for Standardization, Nancy Fernández, who told the press that although the island shows progress in these areas, an essential task is to raise the perception of risk of food-borne diseases, which every year affect 600 million people around the world.
Producers, marketers, and even the final consumer, need to gain education on the dangers inherent to the intake of food not suitable for consumption, she said.
The official’s revelations occurred in connection with the celebration of World Food Safety Day tomorrow, instituted in 2018 by the United Nations General Assembly.
In Cuba, she informed, several regulations are designed that seek to guarantee the optimal state of the products consumed by man and there is great political will to attend to this topic.
Among the regulations, he mentioned the Food Safety Policy, implemented since 2017, and also Decree Law 9, which establishes the principles to guarantee access to healthy and nutritious food throughout the food chain, with an educational, preventive and comprehensive approach.
Likewise, the Law on Food Sovereignty and Food and Nutritional Security, recently approved in the country, is another of the initiatives that ensures protection in this area.
According to the head of the Independent Department of Quality Management of the Ministry of Agriculture, Mariana Pérez, the legislation contains a strategic axis that deals with food safety.
Another strength, she added, lies in the boost given to local food production based on agroecological practices.
The island is also a member, since 1964, of the Codex Alimentarius, an international body in charge of executing the Food Standards Program led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and also by the World Health Organization.
Currently, the secretary of the Cuban Committee of that entity, Félix Medina, pointed out, a project sponsored by its trust fund is being carried out in the country to strengthen the existing culture on this issue.
Cuba arrives at World Food Safety Day with a coherent organization of the policy around the issue, Fernandez added.
On this occasion, he said, the celebration will carry the theme Safe food, better health.
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