Asharqia Chamber held a specialized workshop on Wednesday 1 May 2019 and was directed by a member of the Board of Directors and Chairman of the Logistics Committee Bandar bin Rafi al-Jabri.
The Executive Director of the Saudi Food and Drug Authority in the Eastern Province, Ahmed bin Abdullatif Al-Abdalhadi, expressed the Authority's keenness to implement the importation of food products to the Kingdom, which includes the control of the country of establishment, ports and local facilities, and to determine the terms and requirements for importing food products from exporting countries, as well as the establishment of general rules relating to the guarantees provided by the competent authorities in the exporting countries. All in order to ensure the safety of food delivered to the local market.
During the workshop, Al-Abdalhadi said that the Authority is always working to assess the health status of the exporting countries, or the region or port from which the food commodities come from, the imposition of a ban on products that threaten human health or livestock in the Kingdom, or where microbial, chemical or physical contamination has occurred affecting the safety of livestock and poultry meat and their products.
He added that if the Authority is imposing a temporary ban on countries exporting meat and meat products because it is based on reports issued by international organizations and recognized scientific bodies, or by the Sate itself, which is useful for the spread of a particular disease or epidemic.
He added that the ban was lifted on the basis of a report from a recognized international organization, such as the World Organization for Animal Health, the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Health Organization that is stating control over the causes and demise of the ban, or a report on the health status issued by the official regulatory body in the concerned Stats that is supported by all documents proving the control of the causes of the ban, or its disappearance, including the official notification issued by the concerned State to the SPS Committee of the World Trade Organization, that the causes of the ban cease to exist.
On the mechanism of accreditation of foreign food enterprises, he said that this mechanism aims to complete the control of food facilities in the country of origin from verifying the main sources of food such as farms and others, and checking the authenticity of documents and official certificates of food facilities to investigate the fulfillment of the requirements of the standards and technical regulations approved by the Authority.
The process of accreditation also includes monitoring the transport and storage process until export to the Kingdom.
He added that the inspector is the representative of the Authority that to ensure the application of the requirements to be followed in the food factories and employees through the audit in several documents, including the quality program and records of organizations in the establishment of chemical sterilizers and rodent control program, insects and so on.
He said that the clearance or rejection procedures begin by checking the documents, then matching and inspecting the actual receipt, and the laboratory examination, then making the decision to allowing or rejecting, based on the conditions of clearance that are mandatory for all exporters of products to adopt the standard specifications of the products.
He explained that the main reasons for rejection of products (food and others) include the presence of bacteria or pesticide residues are higher than the limit in some materials, or artificial colors, or the absence of a statement suggesting a negative impact on a particular group such as children, as well as the absence of clear data in Arabic and so on.
