Indonesia developing new food safety warning system

The Indonesian government is working on an early warning system to ensure all imported food products meet both domestic and international safety standards.

The system would be connected online throughout the country and later, to the systems of Asean countries and the EU, said Chairwoman of the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) Kustantinah on Tuesday (Mar 2).

The system will disseminate a warning to other countries when an imported food product failed to meet the national and international standards applied in Indonesia, she said. The warning will be delivered from government to government because they are the ones that have the authority to take action.

As opposed to the existing system, the new one will be integrated into the global food safety structure. It is currently being installed at the BPOM office in Jakarta and its reach will gradually extend to cover all the agency's offices in the provinces and regencies, Kustantinah said.

The BPOM need to work with other government agencies and ministries, and eventually this system will be connected online to that in other Asean countries then the EU, she said.

Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam have implemented similar food safety warning systems. It will take four years for the EUR15 million (US$20.5 million) new system to run at full capacity, said Kustantinah. The funds were allocated to help Indonesia improve its export quality infrastructure and to ensure the compliance of Indonesian exports to the EU and other international standards.

There were two programmes, each costing EUR15 million. One is focusing on laboratory capacity so food quality can be tested in Indonesia, and the other programme called the ''economic cooperation facility'' is still under development.

Indonesia can increase its access to the EU market if quality and quality consistency is assured, according to an official.