ENSURING the SAFETY of IMPORTED FOOD CURRENT APPROACHES for IMPORTED FOOD CONTROL in MYANMAR, NEPAL, the PHILIPPINES and SRI LANKA Ensuring the safety of imported food Current approaches for imported food control in Myanmar, Nepal, the Philippines and Sri Lanka Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Bangkok, 2018 The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers, whether or not these have been patented, does not imply that these have been endorsed or recommended by FAO in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned. The views expressed in this information product are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of FAO. ISBN 978-92-5-130774-8 © FAO, 2018 FAO encourages the use, reproduction and dissemination of material in this information product. Except where otherwise indicated, material may be copied, downloaded and printed for private study, research and teaching purposes, or for use in non-commercial products or services, provided that appropriate acknowledgement of FAO as the source and copyright holder is given and that FAO’s endorsement of users’ views, products or services is not implied in any way. All requests for translation and adaptation rights, and for resale and other commercial use rights should be made via www.fao.org/contact-us/licence-request or addressed to [email protected]. FAO information products are available on the FAO website (www.fao.org/publications) and can be purchased through [email protected] Abstract Food products have been the third most valuable commodity group traded internationally, and imports constitute a significant proportion of the food supplies of developing countries in particular. FAO Members have expressed the need for technical support and guidance to achieve effective national imported food control systems. In 2017, FAO collaborated with the Governments of Myanmar, Nepal, the Philippines and Sri Lanka under the project entitled “Strengthening national capacity for risk-based food import control within a One Health framework” to support the countries in improving their existing systems of national imported food controls. National situation reports of the countries were developed to identify and document their systems’ current status with their strengths and any improvements needed. Findings of the national situation reports have indicated that there are common approaches and tools that can be used to address the needs in all four countries, despite the differences in their levels of development, human capacities and institutional structures. The present document has compiled all four national situation reports and summarized some approaches and tools that would be applicable to most developing countries in the world, including the: 1) use of risk categorization to prioritize commodity and hazard combinations to create a concise and easy reference for border control officials so that high-risk and high-interest food items will receive more attention than other food items; 2) nationwide dissemination and use of standard operating procedures for risk-based inspections for imported foods to maintain consistency and transparency; and 3) systematic written communication mechanism among food safety competent authorities and relevant border control officials on importer profiles, the abovementioned risk categorization results, and required documents to achieve effective risk-based management for imported foods. Keywords: food safety; import controls; inspection; capacity building; One Health; Myanmar; Nepal; Philippines; Sri Lanka; food chains; food contamination; food legislation; food quality; food standards; food-borne diseases. iii Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................................... ix Abbreviations and acronyms ......................................................................................................................... xi Executive summary ...................................................................................................................................... xiii 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Background ........................................................................................................................................ 1 1.2 FAO Risk Based Imported Food Control Manual (2016) .................................................................... 1 1.3 Target audiences ............................................................................................................................... 1 1.4 How to use this document ................................................................................................................ 2 2 National situation report: Republic of the Union of Myanmar ................................................................. 3 2.1 Overview............................................................................................................................................ 3 2.2 Food imports in Myanmar ................................................................................................................. 3 2.2.1 Main imported food products and trade partners .................................................................... 3 2.2.2 Major sites for food imports ..................................................................................................... 4 2.3 Importer profiles ............................................................................................................................... 5 2.4 Generic food import flow .................................................................................................................. 5 2.4.1 Pre-border control ..................................................................................................................... 7 2.4.2 Border control ........................................................................................................................... 7 2.4.3 Post-border/in-country control ................................................................................................. 8 2.5 List of existing documents and tools on imported food control ....................................................... 8 2.6 Roles and responsibilities of stakeholders and relevant legislations and regulations ...................... 9 2.7 Inspection ........................................................................................................................................ 11 2.8 Risk management actions................................................................................................................ 16 2.9 Information exchange and communication .................................................................................... 17 2.10 Training and education .................................................................................................................... 17 2.11 Effectiveness assessment of the current food import control situations ....................................... 18 2.12 Recommendations........................................................................................................................... 19 3 National situation report: Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal .......................................................... 24 3.1 Overview.......................................................................................................................................... 24 3.2 Food imports in Nepal ..................................................................................................................... 24 3.2.1 General requirements for an imported food control framework ........................................... 25 3.2.2 Main imported food products and trade partners .................................................................. 26 3.2.3 Major sites for food import ..................................................................................................... 31 3.3 Importer profiles ............................................................................................................................. 32 v 3.4 Generic food import flow ................................................................................................................ 32 3.4.1 Pre-border control ................................................................................................................... 32 3.4.2 Border control ......................................................................................................................... 33 3.4.3 Post-border/in-country control ............................................................................................... 33 3.5 List of existing