''Honourable Vice-Premier Wu Yi, honourable minister Li Changjiang,honourable minister Chen Zhu, honourable ministers, distinguished guests,ladies and gentlemen.
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I send you my best wishes for a productive meeting, together with myregrets that I am not able to deliver these remarks in person.
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First and foremost, let me thank the government of the People's Republicof China for hosting this high-level forum. China is a country that has moved,in little more than a generation, from a concern with food security to aconcern with food safety.
That is, from feeding a hungry population to ensuring that food is safe,for domestic consumption and for the export trade.
In so doing, China comes face to face with a number of internationaltrends that have made food safety more important, on national andinternational agendas, and much more complex.
Food production is increasingly industrialized. This introduces multipleopportunities for contamination to occur.
The food supply is globalized. Investigation of an outbreak of foodbornedisease can involve tracking ingredients from multiple countries. The responsecan involve the recall of tonnes of food items marketed internationally undermultiple brand names.
Rapid urbanization and corresponding lifestyle changes mean that more andmore people purchase processed foods, eat in restaurants, or buy meals fromstreet vendors. This makes populations more vulnerable to lapses in foodsafety at any point along the production chain.
The result of all these trends is a dramatic increase in the incidence ofsevere episodes of foodborne disease. By ''severe'' I mean severe illness thatgoes well beyond an upset stomach and a day out of work or school.
I mean severe economic losses for the food trade. I mean severe costsassociated with outbreak investigation and food recalls.
And I mean severe losses of consumer confidence. This can be a loss ofconfidence in a food item, a brand name, an exporting country, or even in theability of a government to protect consumer health.
I also mean severe setbacks for the many developing countries that dependso heavily on agricultural exports.
This forum places major emphasis on the international exchange ofinformation and expertise. I find this most appropriate.
Much can be done to prevent foodborne disease, and much technicalexpertise exists as scientific guidance.
Governments need to give food safety just as much attention as they devoteto the quality and safety of pharmaceutical products. Not everyone needs totake medicine every day, but all people need food, each and every day.This is the broad significance of trends that make food safety a major publichealth concern, but also a development issue and a matter of great economicimportance.
I know you will be addressing these issues, and wish you a most productivemeeting.''For further information, please contact: Joanna Brent Tel: +86-10-6532-7189 x81281 Mob: +86-139-1120-5167
SOURCE World Health Organization
