This study is designed to evaluate the agri-food safety management status at local production level and importing stage using the risk analysis system and to present the measures for securing food safety. The scope of the study is limited to fresh agricultural products including vegetables and fruits in case of local agricultural products. For imported agricultural products, processed foods such as Kimchi are included. Regarding the safety management status of agricultural products at local production level, safety issues relating to exported agricultural products and the current status of agricultural products subject to Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) were analyzed. Meanwhile, a farm household survey was conducted for empirical analysis.
Based on the findings of the study, the following conclusions were drawn as necessary to secure agri-food safety at local production level and importing stage: First, safety monitoring should be strengthened in local production sites. To this end, guidance, monitoring, and prior examination processes should be reinforced to control the use of hazardous materials such as agricultural chemicals, heavy metals and microorganisms in production sites. For the exported items of which the tolerance level of residuals for hazardous material monitoring is low and the imported items which are consumed in a large volume, the application scope of the standards for hazardous materials such as heavy metals should be expanded as soon as possible. Second, food safety information of home and abroad should be shared among various organizations to enhance the level of information usability and prevent safety accidents. To build consumer trust, related information should be fully disclosed. Third, new food safety management systems including GAP and traceability should be stabilized in the early stage to secure agri-food safety from the production stage. To this end, constant establishment of related infrastructure is demanded. Fourth, systematic education on food safety should be provided for consumers and agri-food producers to raise their awareness on agri-food safety and build a national consensus. Fifth, punishments need to be strictly imposed against violators of safe agri-food production, processing, and distribution-related standards to check repetitive violations.
To sum up, securing safety for exported agricultural products, GAP agricultural products, and imported agri-foods requires the establishment of hazardous materials guidelines in the early stage; appropriate education and promotion to consumers and producers; the collection, analysis, sharing and distribution of food safety information of home and abroad; and stronger enforcement of punishments against violators. The solutions proposed above could be effective only when there are supporting government policies. In this context, prompt response by the government is foremost needed.
Since the GAP project is in the pilot stage of testing, there are limits in evaluating the system. It seems a full-scale evaluation will be needed for the project one or two years from now. When the "Food Safety Agency" is launched in the future, more studies will be needed to find out proper segregation of roles and functional adjustment among the Food Safety Agency, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, and local government agencies with regard to this issue.
Researchers: Choi, Ji-Hyeon; Park and Kim, Min-Jeong
E-mail address: jihchoi@krei.re.kr