EU vows to help UAE promote food safety

posted on 27/09/2011: 64 views

The European Union is willing to work with the UAE to promote food safety and to empower consumers to make healthy food choices, a senior health official said.

John Dalli, European commissioner for health and consumer policy, said "reformulation" of food products was also an important issue and food manufacturers in the EU have been pushed to reduce, sugar, salt and fat content.

Food manufacturers and fast food groups have been brought on board recently to help fight deadly non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and obesity and prevent heart attacks.

Dalli yesterday met senior officials in the environment and finance ministry and conveyed the EU's offer of help to facilitate food safety.

He said it was important to reduce tobacco consumption, cut down alcohol abuse and tackle obesity.

He warned that while smoking has been reduced to a certain level in the West, tobacco manufacturers are targeting girls with flavours including strawberry and pina colada.

"Tobacco manufacturers are putting up a fight," he said, over plans for plain cigarette packaging and graphic warnings on the packs on the harm smoking can do.

He said the UAE and the EU also need to cooperate further in passing information rapidly during epidemics such as the recent H1N1 outbreak. The commissioner said that as more microbes become resistant to antibiotics it was important to educate doctors not to prescribe them for every ailment.

Dalli said pharmaceutical groups were being asked to pool resources to manufacture new drugs.

"But developing new drugs is not the way, but to use them in the right way," he said.

Doctors in the UAE told Gulf News that they are forced by patients to prescribe antibiotics or lose them to others who will.

Patients say that antibiotics are readily prescribed as the cost is usually covered by medical insurance. The scientific argument is that when antibiotics are freely used the viruses become immune to the drug. – Gulf News

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