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G. T. VALDIMARSSON, Fishery Industries Division, Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, Rome, 00100, Italy Zero tolerance is a central theme in the public debate about food controls in international trade. The Rio Summit in 1992 stated that the international economy should “promote sustainable development through trade liberalization”. This means creating a multilateral trading system “that is non-discriminatory, rule-based, equitable, secure, transparent and predictable”. The FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries also calls for further liberalization of fish trade. The traditional tool for countries to protect their own markets against outside competition is a system of import duties. As these have systematically been lowered through series of multilateral trade rounds there is potentially an increased incentive to use quality and safety measures as disguised technical barriers to trade. Zero tolerance could be defined as the absence of a hazard in a specified amount of food as determined by a specific method and a sampling protocol. It is becoming increasingly clear, especially in light of rapid advances in detection technology, that “zero” does not exist in real world situations. The precautionary principle on food-safety “when in doubt-leave it out” creates an important principle. If acceptable daily intake regimes cannot be established for pharmacologically active compounds they should not be used or added to the food. The 1995 WTO agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary measures confirms the right of member countries to apply measures necessary to protect human, animal and plant life and health but stresses that such measures should be based on international standards and be scientifically risk based as to give Appropriate Level of Protection. There is a need to promote wide understanding of the risk approach and the fact that modern HACCP based food production systems can deliver safe foods, but never risk free.
Session 92, Zero tolerance and control of seafood safety
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