National Program on Food Safety in IR Iran: Current status and Horizon Iran 1404

A significant concern all over the world is food safety. Pathogen and toxin-contaminated foods are a major source of illnesses, even death, and have a significant economic impact worldwide. For ensuring food safety, first, a clear picture of various food contaminants and frauds must be obtained. In IR Iran, a program on food safety was started at 2013. The project was embarked by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in cooperation with Vice Presidency for Science and Technology, Center for Innovation and Technology Cooperation of Presidential Office, and Food Safety Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences (as the R&D Center of the FDA) to empower the labs for fast screening tests as well as high tech sophisticated instrumental methods of analysis. Several methods have already been established in labs which are used for routine monitoring of the food contaminants and frauds. However, since the list of food contaminants and types of food frauds are growing constantly, expanding the capabilities for monitoring and determination has been chosen as the first priority in FDA. First, the priorities of contaminants and frauds in foods were determined out. The success in this path was guaranteed by collaboration with the Iranian scientists as well as with the fellow scientists in highly accredited centers around the world. In this regard, several training courses and workshops were held for the FDA staff and the methods are established in the labs for monitoring of food contaminants. These new techniques will be used in surveillance of foods (PMS) in order to get the clear picture of contamination in foods consumed in IR Iran. According to the PMS results, the management of risks will be applied to foods. Therefore, the next step of the program will be management of food safety as well as improving the culture of food safety in the country.

کلیدواژه ها:

Food ، Safety ، Iran 1404