2024-04-01 04:26:09
The National Association of Food and Beverage Manufacturers (Anfab) admits that the industry lacked control of cinnamon suppliers.
According to the president of the National Association of Food and Beverage Manufacturers (Anfab), Christian Wahli, some food companies have had sales drops of up to 20%, following the problem with the adulteration of cinnamon, a primary input for this industry. .
The union addressed this recent problem at an Anfab event held on March 12, 2024, in Quito. Wahli acknowledged that the lead accident took the entire industry by surprise.
“We have quality management systems, but we may have rested on our laurels and avoided the control of an important raw material.”
“Funny, if this had not happened in the United States, we would never talk about this,” added the union representative. He stressed that joint work between the sector and government authorities is key so that problems such as lead are limited as much as possible.
According to Anfab, by 2022, the agri-food sector represented 14% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 43% of the country’s total exports. In addition, it employs more than five million people. “Adulteration in bad faith” For Wahli, what happened with cinnamon, a primary input for the food industry, was a
“bad faith adulteration”
not an accident that could be foreseen. “That was a crime.” The representative of the industrial union explained that although companies have quality management systems and accredit their input suppliers, the problem was that over time they stopped controlling.
“A certificate of Good Manufacturing Practices is audited every year, what the company did not do is audit the supplier every year, that’s where the accident happens,” said Wahli. Jonathan Coronel, an academic at the Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral, pointed out that in the face of a potential risk associated with food consumption, it is key that there is an alert system.
This system should analyze the type of danger, the product, the companies involved, possible victims, what the legislation says about it and the measures adopted.
From the academy, the Consortium for Food Safety has been created, in order to support control entities to carry out analyzes of toxic metals and contribute to the development of public policy proposals. Four universities in the country participate in the Consortium.
By: PRIMICIAS