Seminar on Food Inspection, Certification
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN - A
SEMINAR titled 'Strengthening of Food Inspection and Certification for
Shrimp and Bivalve Molluscs in Brunei Darussalam', which aimed to
deliver information related to the importance of harmonisation and
strengthening food inspection system and certification of fisheries,
concluded yesterday.
The two-day seminar was delivered to two different working groups, which
will gather feedback for the upcoming final Regional Review Meeting,
scheduled to be held in Manila in January 2008.
The first working group included relevant authorities from agencies
which are involved in the inspection and certification of food such as
the Food Safety and Quality Control Section from the Public Health
Department, Ministry of Health. Also in the group were those from the
National Standard and Accreditation Centre, Ministry of Industry and
Primary Resources, which is responsible for the issuance of Hazard
Analysis And Critical Control Point (HACCP) and Good Aquaculture
Practices (GAqP).
The second group consisted of officers and staff from the Department of
Fisheries involved in the inspection and monitoring activity of fishing
vessels, fish landing sites, ponds, and processing establishments
producing fisheries products for export.
One of the objectives of the Department is to include Brunei Darussalam
in the list of countries exporting to the European Union (EU), which is
very difficult to penetrate due to the stringent requirements. With the
challenges faced, it is expected that the seminar will assist Brunei
Darussalam on how to achieve this objective.
To fulfil the requirements set out by the EU, standards such as the
Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) need to be met.
In doing this, full commitment and involvement of producers is needed
but more importantly, an institution in charge of enforcing food quality
control is needed as well as support from other institutions in terms of
technical, research and training institutions is necessary. The seminar,
which was officiated by the Director of Fisheries Department, Hjh Hasnah
Ibrahim, in her opening remarks, mentioned that the seminar will benefit
the participants in terms of capacity building for implementation and
upgrading the monitoring and certification system for shrimp and bivalve
mollusks.
The seminar is expected to establish strategies to harmonise the
monitoring and certification system for shrimp and bivalve mollusks in
order to upgrade the quality control system of the Fisheries Department.
It will also upgrade the capability of the country to meet the standard
requirements set by importing countries such as the EU.
So far, Brunei has successfully exported shrimp to countries like Japan,
Korea and United States of America, although in small quantities,
according to Hjh Hasnah.
Hamdan Jaafar, from the Department of Fisheries, Malaysia, was invited
to conduct the seminar and present the guidelines and standard
inspection and certification systems according to the international
standards, as well as share his experiences.
- Courtesy of the
Brunei Times -
