Folk wisdom as well as recommendations frequently forwarded by local researchers and food scientists, can enable our country to efficiently brave the challenges of food security and safety, said Dr Arif Siddiqui, vice chancellor of Barret Hodgson University (BHU-Karachi).
Addressing a seminar organised by BHU, he said concerted efforts were needed to protect the basic right of the people to easy and affordable availability of safe and quality food across the country.
On the occasion prominent speakers from academia and industry made their respective presentations on issues related to food in general.
Presentations were followed by a panel discussion on adequacy of food to society-its equitable distribution, fair access, and sustained sources.
Department of Biosciences Chairman Dr Shakeel Ahmed Khan focused on the issues of hunger elimination, undernourishment, and basic issues of malnutrition. He emphasised that mere food sufficiency was not enough, but quality of food and its nutrition content along with its safety were also among the important components of the food chain.
“Two-thirds of the world’s food insecure population is spread among seven countries of which Pakistan is one,” he said.
University of Karachi (KU) Professor Dr Shakeelur Rehman Farooqi focused his presentation on the area of genetically modified food and the concerns related to it. “Altered food can cause long term illnesses and any breach in food safety can have grave consequences,” said the senior researcher. He extensively discussed multi-sectorial and multi-disciplinary approaches to make food safe.
KU’s Department of Food Professor Dr Abid Hasnain said unabated use of additives and substandard preservation techniques has restricted country’s potential to emerge as a food product exporter on the international arena.
“Our export sector needs to improve preservation measures, processing techniques, packaging and distribution in order to be an active participant in the international trade,” he said.
Reliable food processing techniques to avoid food-borne illnesses: Dr Tasneem Adam Ali, professor at KU’s Department of Microbiology, while discussing food-borne illnesses, said the issue at any given time is estimated to affect 40 million people, only in a country like the US, annually.
Citing this to be a serious threat for many of the people, she said socio-economic constraints further enhance this vulnerability in underdeveloped countries like Pakistan.
Nations need to resort to more reliable food processing techniques to avoid food-borne illnesses was the idea propounded by Mudassir Nazir of SGS Pakistan. He said that there was an urgent need for increased awareness towards the issue.
Dr Muhammad Sham Younas, food scientist at BHU, shared his research studies related to the need for food fortification and supplementation.
He said malnutrition and nutrient deficiency is registered to result in stunted growth among many of the local children.
Dr Shahana Urooj Kazmi, rector of Dadabhoy Institute of Higher Education talked of safe industrial practices in food industry and community as a whole. “Urgent measures are required to prevent the spread of drug-resistant organisms in our food chain,” she said and attributed this to the irrational administration of antibiotic among animals.
The event concluded with vote of thanks by Dr Nikhat A Siddiqui, Dean Sciences at BHU.
