Food safety research in Indonesia scoping study

• MorVet Limited, New Zealand

Indonesia currently has limited measures in place to protect safety of food consumed by its population. The scale of food safety problems is largely unknown, as are the critical points in the supply chain for the three food types examined in this study. In the past people were protected to some extent from major food-borne disease outbreaks, because a high proportion of them lived in rural villages as subsistence farmers. In this situation, the supply chain was very short, and traditional protective measures (such as cooking foods shortly after harvesting with few intermediate handlers, and the use of spices in cooking) have mitigated the risk. However the rapid pace of urbanisation over recent decades means that over half of the Indonesian population now lives in urban areas, and this trend will continue and intensify.

Urban populations rely on much longer food chains arising from fewer but larger-scale producers, with far greater opportunity for contamination to affect large numbers of people. Risks to food safety can arise from contamination of food stuffs by agents such as bacteria and microbial parasites, also from chemicals either applied to enhance and protect productivity (e.g. pesticides) or accidentally ingested by animals later killed for food. This study sought to identify the major food safety risks to vegetables and to animal products (red and white meat, and shrimp). Risks were prioritised in terms of the extent of their effect on either human health or marketability, and current and potential value of the industry concerned.

The study assisted stakeholders across commodity groups to focus on particular risk areas. It found that objective evidence of the true hazards and where they occurred in the chain was sparse for all three product categories (vegetables, shrimp and both red and white meat). Thus it was an important step to gain a better understanding of this underpinning information before other elements of the national research program could correctly focus on major problems.

However some immediate problems were identified. Two forms of chemical contamination of products (use of inappropriate preservatives in meat products and contamination of shrimp by antimicrobials) were deemed to require more investigation with a view to minimising the hazards. An opportunity also exists for those working with shrimp and meat to explore practical methods for farmers to apply improved practices, using knowledge gained both within and outside Indonesia.