Oman's State Council panel discusses food product standards

Muscat: Standards and specifications for food and other products were discussed at a meeting yesterday.
The discussion took place when the Social Committee of the State Council hosted officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries to enhance the value of a study being conducted to develop policies aimed at promoting health.
The meeting was chaired by Dr. Hamad bin Sulaiman bin Salim Al Salmi, head of the Committee, and was held in the presence of the honourable members of the Committee and the secretariat staff.
The panel hosted Dr. Ahmed bin Nasser Al Bakri, undersecretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Saleh bin Mohammed bin Saleh Al Abri, director general of Agriculture, Hamoud Darwish Hassani, director general of Agriculture, Ministry of Agriculture and Mohammed bin Suhail Al Shanfari, director general of Livestock. The event was aimed at a dialogue and to highlight the aspects that will enrich the study, and take note of the efforts undertaken by the ministry.
During its 13th meeting, the Committee discussed a range of themes related to the study, including the standard requirements and specifications for local and imported products, food and other consumer products.
It also discussed the stages of the control process in matching imported and locally manufactured materials, the specifications set by different parties, the required material and human resources required to achieve this, in addition to addressing operational procedures to deal with violations of the specification.
It is worth noting that the study deals with contemporary behavioural habits of the community and the growing negative impact on environment, which has led to increased chronic and serious illnesses in community diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, blood pressure.
These have had a critical and negative impact on all development efforts. It also directly creates a negative impact on the economy and the Development Index, resulting in the drain of state resources.
The meeting also addressed issues arising from the lack of cooperation between government institutions concerned with coordination, resulting in weakness in health promotion programmes, and reviewed domestic legislations, and its appropriateness in keeping up with these laws and international standards, which are renewable in the field of health promotion, as well study the possibility of enhancing the participation of private sector institutions and civil society organisations in the field of health development.
At the time of conclusion of the meeting, the Committee ratified the minutes of the previous meeting, and briefed everyone present on the updates in the topics figuring on its agenda and took the relevant decisions.