KARACHI, Feb 27: The 6th National Safe Food Conference 2007 with the theme, Forging Public Private Partnerships, will be held in Islamabad on March 14. The objective is to explore and develop public/private co-operation in combating issues related to food safety in Pakistan and create awareness among consumers, manufacturers and other stakeholders regarding food safety rules and regulations.

The conference is being jointly organised by English Biscuit Manufacturers (EBM) Pvt Ltd, United Registrar of Systems Limited and Pakistan National Accreditation Council (PNCA). The need to create awareness about safe food standards has increased with the advent of WTO. It has now become imperative for food industries to meet these standards if they want to compete in the international market. Public health, he said, was a growing concern which was the responsibility of the government and civil society alike.

Addressing a press briefing, GM Marketing and Sales, EBM, Mubashir Ansari spoke of different projects under execution to create awareness about safe food standards and practices and said the exercise of creating awareness would not only highlight the lapses in government policies and their implementation but also educate organisations to exert pressure on the government to protect consumers’ rights.

Pakistan has great potential to compete in the international market if the government adopts policies to encourage local manufacturers and implement rules and regulations on safe food standards, he added.

Chairman Department Food Sciences and Technology, Karachi University, Abid Hasnain, said Pakistan had failed to realise its potential in value-added products and no sincere effort was ever made to improve the quality of foodstuff. He said the country should exploit the halal products market.—Our Reporter