H.E. Dr. Rashid Ahmed Bin Fahad, Minister of Environment and Water, headed the UAE delegation that participated during the second meeting of the GCC Ministerial Committee for Food Safety, which was held recently in Doha, Qatar. The event, which follows after the initial meeting held last September in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, falls in line with the committee’s move to reinforce joint efforts and consolidate cooperation among GCC member countries, particularly in the field of systems development and procedures concerning food safety.

The meeting covered a number of important and timely topics—including the current efforts to develop provisions for the proposed Unified GCC Food law that would be applied in all member countries; development for a common policy concerning food safety in the GCC region and drafting of regulations and guidelines for the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (GCC-RASFF).

 The meeting also included discussions on the establishment of a special unit of the dietary risk assessment, the study of energy drinks prohibition or the restriction of its commercialization. Participants also reviewed the move to create temporary work teams and the implementation of a unified control of the Gulf directory on imported food outlets across GCC countries.

 As a result of the meeting, the committee agreed on holding the meetings on a regular basis to reinforce efforts in developing laws and legislation on food safety systems that can be widely implemented among GCC countries.

 The UAE delegation also included H.E. Engineer Saif Mohammed Al Shara, Assistant Undersecretary for Agriculture and Livestock Affairs, MoEW and Chairman of the National Committee on Food Safety and Asia al Raeesi, Director of Food Safety Department, MoEW.