A three-day food safety summit has gathered hundreds of experts and officials to exchange views on food safety and evidence-based practices. The summit is attended by industry leaders and influencers from around the world, including European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) Executive Director Bernhard Url.
It was the first visit to Taiwan of an Executive Director from EFSA, the responsible authority for EU risk assessment for food and feed safety. The organisation provides scientific advice on food-related risks to EU decision makers and performs risk communication through different channels including online educational videos.
Dr. Url visited Taiwan's Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday. After the visit, a small media gathering was arranged by the Taipei-based European Economic and Trade Office. In the meeting, Url told reporters that he was impressed by the rich diversity of foods during his stay in Taiwan and, at the food safety summit, by President Tsai Ing-wen’s strong statement about food safety and the resources she vowed to pour into the building-up of a safer food system.
Dr. Url said the organization welcomes opportunities to collaborate on different levels such as a guest-speaker exchange program. “Collaboration is in our DNA,” said Url, adding that in the 21st century, many issues can be solved only on a collaborative basis.
Asked by reporters about the safety of genetically modified products, Url said that the assessments show they are as safe as their conventional counterparts. He emphasized that there is no black and white while talking about the safety of a GM product, experts have to comb through thick reports to study case by case, from its environmental impact, toxicology, and nutrition level, before giving a risk assessment. He added that eventually, the organisation provides a risk assessment, but decision makers will decide whether or not to approve the sales by taking many factors into consideration from economic, political, ethical, or environmental points of view.
Tsai attended the food safety summit Tuesday and spoke of the Taiwan government’s plans to strengthen food safety, such as boosting the food safety budget by 50 percent in 2017 and forming new task forces to address a variety of issues related to food safety.