Sri Lanka launches its first National Food Safety Policy, promising coordinated regulation from farm to plate
Sri Lanka has food laws, inspectors, laboratories, standards and numerous institutions responsible for protecting what reaches the dinner table.
What it has not had until now is a single overarching National Food Safety Policy coordinating them.
That changed yesterday with the launch of Sri Lanka’s first National Food Safety Policy, developed under the Ministry of Health and Mass Media through the Food Control Administration Unit with technical support from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and funding from the European Union.
The policy seeks to create a coordinated, risk-based national system covering the food chain from production to consumption.
Its priorities include stronger institutional coordination, improved food controls, updated laws and standards, better surveillance and laboratory capacity, scientific risk analysis, public education and a system for monitoring whether the policy actually works.
That last part may prove particularly important.
Sri Lanka has rarely suffered from a shortage of policies. The more persistent problem has been converting carefully drafted documents into enforcement on the ground.
Food safety is especially unforgiving of that gap.
The issue ranges from pesticide residues on vegetables and contamination during production to storage, transport, restaurant hygiene, labelling and imported food. One weak link can render the remainder of the regulatory chain largely irrelevant.
There is an economic dimension too.
Earlier this year, concerns were raised over agrochemical residue levels in some Sri Lankan fresh fruit and vegetable exports to the European Union. Cabinet subsequently approved measures requiring certain EU-bound produce to come through farms, exporters and packing facilities certified under Sri Lanka Good Agricultural Practices guidelines.
Food safety therefore does not end at the kitchen table. Export markets, tourism and Sri Lanka’s reputation as an agricultural producer depend upon it as well.
The new policy is expected to be supported by an updated Food Act now under consideration.
That combination could give Sri Lanka a considerably stronger regulatory framework.
But a policy cannot inspect a kitchen, test a vegetable, close an unsafe factory or prosecute an offender.
People and institutions must do that.
The policy is finally here.
Implementation is what we should watch next.
The policy launched on September 2 is Sri Lanka’s first overarching National Food Safety Policy. It establishes six strategic priority areas and is expected to be supported by a proposed updated Food Act. The EU residue issue was separately acknowledged in a May Cabinet decision.
