EU recognises new Mexican food safety body

The National Service for Animal Health, Food Safety, and Agricultural and Food Quality Assurance (SENASICA) has been recognised by the EU as a regulatory entity of sanitary and phytosanitary measures.

This decision transforms Mexico into one of the few countries in the world that fulfills the most demanding sanitary and phytosanitary measures established by European countries, which also favours the direct entry of seafood and agricultural products.

Shrimp is one of main products for export to the community market that will benefit from this European recognition.

Upon finalising work meetings of the 'Facilitation Project of the Mexico and European Union Free Trade Treaty (PROTLCUEM),' the director in chief of SENASICA Enrique Sanchez Cruz, emphasised the work carried out within the protocol of understanding to activate the harmonisation of sanitary and phytosanitary measures between Mexico and countries that integrate the EU.

Cruz explained that the traceability protocol reveals all the stages and processes by which primary products are processed, like shrimp, precisely as demanded by the markets that conform to the EU.

The agreements reached within the framework of the Free Trade Treaty between Mexico and Europe facilitates the sales of Mexican tuna, shrimp and bivalve molluscs to the Community market.

Following the decision of the European Commission (EC), Mexico's seafood producers will agree to better information for regulatory decision-making, and new tools for the supervision and assessment of systems required by the EU.

A holistic system of food innocuity is being established within the framework of PROTLCUEM, to provide for coherence in international sanitary exigencies, and clearer rules in norms, protocols and alert systems for the mitigation of risks, Cruz indicated.

Similarly, government authorities of Mexico and members of the EC agreed that the Secretariat of Health and the Advocate General of the Consumer participate in a national warning system so that products that are consumed in the country or those that are exported are in prime condition, informed the Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fishery and Foods (SAGARPA).