Study on Food Safety Control Systems By the National Agency of Drug and Food Control (NADFC) Republic of Indonesia.

Abstract

“Food nutrition and safety are the right of individuals and government has the responsibilty to assure that the need is adequately fulfilled”,was a statement made during FAO/WHO International Conference on Nutrition (ICN), Rome, 1992. In Indonesia, the safety of processed food is controlled by the National Agency of Drug and Food Control (NADFC) through regulations and policies developed in the country. The purposes of this study are (1) to determine the food control systems established by the NADFC, (2) to evaluate the implementation of the systems, and (3) to make recommendations for improvement of the existing systems. The research was conducted as follows: (1) identification of food safety control sytems by the NADFC, (2) identification and implementation result of food safety control systems by the NADFC, (3) to assess the adequacy of the systems and its implementation, and (4) make the recommendations for improvement of the existing systems. Data were collected from data in the NADFC. The study shows that the NADFC establishes a safety control system of the marketed food products in Indonesia by controlling the foods before and after foods are being marketed. As a preventive control, the pre-market assessment for processed food is done by evaluation of the nutrition content, hazards, production process, and the manufacturer. The pre-market control depends on the ability and competence of human resources as food evaluators as well as networks with other agencies responsible for certification system (GMP, HACPP, etc). The postmarket control is carried out by Technical Implementation Unit Provincial Office of NADFC in Indonesia that conducts inspection of food production facilities, food distribution facilities, as well as food sampling and testing. The activities are conducted using guidelines and technical guidance from the NADFC. The activities of post-market control is not adequately coordinated and orthoroughly analyized. Better coordination and analysis are needed to enable NADFC to evaluate the results of the post-market control thus they can be used toward program establishment in the future such as sampling priority and management of certain contaminants.