Food and drug safety ministry trains Asian food regulators

The food and drug safety ministry said it will host 20 food-safety regulators from Asian partner countries through Aug. 14 for training on agricultural, livestock and fishery product safety.

The ministry said it has operated the annual program since the Korea-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement took effect in June 2007 as part of economic cooperation. The program shares Korean food-safety policies and systems with major Asian trading partners to build their management capacity, improve imported-food safety and support Korean food companies' exports.

The participants are from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. KOICA supports project operations, while the Food Safety Management Certification Agency manages the training and delivers its education programs.

Participants will attend sessions on Korean food-safety policies and systems, visit food manufacturing and processing facilities with safety certification, and use a new action-plan module to draw up practical improvement tasks and specific implementation plans based on food-safety conditions in their countries.

During the training, the ministry will run an export-support roundtable for Korean food companies, covering food-safety systems and import regulations in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam and taking questions from businesses.