Posted: January 30th, 2012 - 1:10pm
Source: Sudan Vision

All speakers at the weekly Consumer Protection Society Forum that was held under the theme "Food Safety" have unanimously agreed that inspection, analysis and decision making are the safety valve for providing the consumer with healthy food.
They said food should be safely kept and protected while being shipped by sea or by other means of transport.
The speakers stressed the importance of close supervision by concerned government departments of all matters relating to food in addition to the need for improvement of food inspection laboratories for ensuring food safety.
They further said physical and chemical environment relating to food should comply with food specifications and criteria.
The forum discussions were managed by the former Sudanese Standards and Metrology Organization (SSMO) director of, Dr. Ibrahim Mohammed Ahmed who said international food specifications should be applied with respect to quality and safety of food.
"Shipments of food stuff should be carefully inspected for ensuring compliance of consignments with international criteria and safety regulations and methods," he said.
Dr. Ahmed added that all imported food stuff should be inspected and that coordination between the concerned bodies and (SSMO), the official supervisor body, be strengthened.
For his part, Dr. Azhari Awad Al Karim, who provides private consultancy to the ministry of health, said the government should import modern food quality inspection equipment for this purpose.
"Inspection should start at sea ports before shipment of goods so that if any damaged food stuff is discovered, the consignment should be directly returned to sources," he said.
Dr. Awad Al Karim added supervisory bodies should carry out such job since the stay of food consignments at ports for long time in the presence of inappropriate environment and improper packing would damage the consignment, particularly when we know that foods stuff have fixed validity date.
On the other hand, participants debated the recent sugar consignment row over the presence of sea water in the consignment which stirred great arguments amongst the general public.