BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) — The critical role of food safety was the highlight of a series of training workshops in the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) system, that ended here on Wednesday.

“This is an important initiative that the EU is pleased to participate in as it addresses issues of economic diversification, while at the same time contributing to the further development of the region’s agro-processing capacity,” said head of the European Union Delegation, Ambassador Mikael Barfod.

During an address made at the inception workshop, Ena Harvey, head of the Barbados Delegation of Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), highlighted the critical role of the HACCP food safety training session, which she stated, would “contribute to an improvement in the technical competence of public sector professionals and private sector personnel within the region to meet national, regional and international food safety standards”.

According to Harvey, at present, many agri-food products originating from the CARIFORUM region cannot be exported to overseas markets because many companies do not comply with food safety regulations and other sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standards required for the international export and trade of products.

She acknowledged that the low level of compliance with food safety regulations and other SPS standards present a challenge to the achievement of a greater level of international market access and trade for exporters of agri-food products that originate from CARIFORUM States.

Project manager of the SPS Project, Janet Lawrence, explained that all countries must comply with SPS measures in order to successfully export their products to international markets.

She noted that SPS measures, are applied to protect human, animal and plant health and life from risks arising from pests, diseases or disease-causing organisms and from contaminants and disease-causing organisms in food.

Lawrence reiterated the importance of adopting and complying with the HACCP System, which is an internationally recognised food safety system.

She stated that any company involved in the manufacturing, processing or handling of food products should adopt this system to minimise or eliminate food safety hazards in their product.