THE concerns of European countries over food export consignments may now be addressed as Pakistan has improved its food safety control system.

The Veterinary Residue Laboratory in Faisalabad has acquired the capability to certify the safety of food with the assistance of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

The laboratory, established by the Nuclear Institute for Agriculture and Biology (NIAB) of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), has recently earned International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) accreditation. Officials expect the development would contribute to increasing meat exports.

For food products to be accepted as safe for consumption, they must be tested, among other things, for veterinary drug residues to ensure they do not violate safety or reference limits

The certificate, valid for three years, will help the lab analyse seven types of antibiotics and hormones in food products. Pakistan now has the capacity to process over a thousand food samples each year.

Under the technical cooperation programme of the IAEA, the lab has been provided with equipment, training opportunities at European labs and the assistance of expert missions. This support helped the laboratory increase its testing capability and received the accreditation.

Pakistan’s livestock sector, which contributes 12 per cent to gross domestic product (GDP), grew 4.1pc in 2014-15.

In 2010, the European Union (EU) rejected 134 food consignments from Pakistan due to contamination. This forced the country to improve its food safety control system.

According to the principles of food safety, the ultimate responsibility lies with the producer. But in reality, when looking at the food sector as a ‘farm-to-plate’ industry, it becomes obvious that problems can occur at any point in the supply chain.

The farmers may produce food safely, but contamination can happen during transport, storage, at home or at the market.

The joint initiative of the IAEA, PAEC and FAO has created awareness of the importance of laboratory accreditation as well as production that meets international standards.

“Pakistan produces some of the world’s finest tasting foods, especially meat and other animal products,” said Waqar Ahmad, who is in charge of this cooperation at the permanent mission of Pakistan to the Vienna-based IAEA.

“In the past, Pakistan has had exports rejected because they did not comply with the food safety standards of importing countries. This resulted in significant economic losses and food waste,” he said.

As with many farmers around the world, it is common practice to administer medicines to animals to keep them healthy, rather than to treat disease when it occurs.

“Problems arise when farmers do not have correct advice on what drug to buy and use, or do not follow instructions on how, when and how much to administer or how long to wait until the drugs have cleared out of the animal’s body,” said James Jacob Sasanya, food safety specialist at the Joint FAO-IAEA division of nuclear techniques in food and agriculture.

If drugs remain in the animal’s body, they, or their residues, may end up in food products and could pose a health hazard to consumers, he said.

For meat and other food products to be accepted as safe for consumption, they must be tested, among other things, for veterinary drug residues to ensure they do not exceed safety or reference limits. “Pakistan did not have the capacity to conduct these tests until the new laboratory became operational,” Mr Ahmad said.

Sausages made of sheep meat are a key export product and are monitored by 13 quarantine centres in Pakistan. These centres rely on credible laboratory testing, which for the first time is now available at the Faisalabad’s Veterinary Residue Laboratory.

“In the absence of its own national analytical capabilities, tests had to be outsourced to other countries, which is both expensive and time-consuming,” Mr Sasanya said. “With this new achievement, Pakistan can now rely on its own analytical capabilities.”

Additionally, the joint division worked together with the Nuclear Institute for Agricultural Biology, National Institute for Genetic Biotechnology and the National Veterinary Laboratories of Islamabad to develop cost-effective methodologies to test for veterinary drug residues.

They have gone through proficiency testing, improved their ISO accreditation, and are authorised to provide eight analytical services to test for compliance — services they make available to the private sector.

Currently, more than 45 private and public institutions involved in food production and export can benefit from the laboratory testing capabilities.

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, August 21st, 2017