Bringing safe and nutritious foods to Southeast Asia

SOUTHEAST Asian countries are faced with various challenges and obstacles in overcoming prevailing food safety and nutrition issues. In response, DuPont Nutrition & Health recently organized a Thought Leaders Roundtable Discussion at its Singapore headquarters to galvanize the ideas and viewpoints of government, academia and food industry experts from the region. One of the key issues identified for discussion was food safety.

With the global population projected to reach 9 billion by the year 2050, with Southeast Asia at 800 million by the same year, the greatest challenge is to produce enough food to meet the increasing demands of a rapidly growing industrialized world.

Due to the globalization of trade and complexity of the food supply chain, plus increased movement of consumers and lifestyle changes, there is a demand for a wider variety of food. The effect of this is to lengthen the supply chain which may allow contaminants to enter at any point. Therefore, collaboration and shared responsibility of all those involved is crucial to ensure that end products reach the consumer in the safest and most nutritional state.

At the moment, accessing safe foods remains a challenge. There is a strong and pressing need to develop more regional cooperation and collaboration to ensure that food supplied to the Southeast Asia population is safe and free from contaminants.

The Roundtable Discussion group highlighted that the food safety regulatory framework in Southeast Asia is very diverse and recognized the various challenges in the region, where the less developed countries are struggling to establish initial regulatory frameworks.

It was also noted that 80 percent of food manufacturers in the region are small or medium-sized enterprises, which raised a number of questions, such as: How can world-class science and technology, such as molecular screening, be brought to a local level without adding complexity to food safety compliance? How do we overcome challenges such as climate change, which may affect microbial change and hence food safety issues?

The underlying thread that links many of the issues is the building of trust in the food industry, where the need to work on fact- and science-based dialogues would be seen as the industry making a serious effort instead of simply being profit driven.

Food safety has always been a global challenge, and is a problem in Southeast Asia. For example, in Vietnam, food safety is a joint responsibility, with academics uploading lessons onto the internet with the aim of educating students on food safety issues. Currently, there is a local campaign stating “Say No To Unsafe Food”.

Food safety is also an issue for the Central Vietnam fishing industry. In some communities, food safety awareness is generally low due to lack of knowledge, with food poisoning a common problem among low-salaried workers in South Vietnam. But DuPont Nutrition & Health believes it can help alleviate many of these issues with training, workshop and/or survey projects which would help to strengthen food safety awareness.

A major concern is the production, importation and exportation of low quality and unsafe foods. For this reason, the authorities as well as the food industry itself must implement a good surveillance system so that foods that are produced and distributed nationwide, or foods that are imported into the country, can be free of safety problems.

The new DuPont Nutrition & Health Innovation & Application Center has been set up to provide consumer insights and to work closely with the food industry to develop affordable and healthy solutions that deliver good taste and texture. In Southeast Asia, DuPont is committed to playing an instrumental role in the region’s future and looks forward to a close and strong partnership with both the private and public sector, which will benefit Southeast Asia and its population for years to come.