The ministers of industry and agriculture, Freij Sabonjian, and Hussein Hajj Hassan, held a joint meeting last week to discuss collaboration between the 2 bodies responsible for food safety. After the meeting, Sabonjian emphasized the need for collaboration, adding that both ministries will have zero tolerance towards any violation to food safety and any threat to the health of citizens.
From his part, Hajj Hassan indicated that the objective of meeting was to increase the level of collaboration and partnership of his ministry with the Ministry of Industry dealing with food processing factories, in order to better develop the sector and to ensure food safety. He revealed that there are presently 1500 licensed factories working in this sector, in addition to 4000 other smaller establishments. Both ministries are working together to ensure that all factories abide by ISO and HACCP criteria, in the near future.
Source: Al-Diyar, Al-Safir, Al-Nahar 5 January 2013
