The National Service of Health, Safety and Agri-Food Quality (Senasica), the National Association of Self-Service and Departmental Stores (ANTAD) and the Food Marketing Institute of the United States signed a declaration of intent to build an alliance on food safety.
This alliance will allow to identify areas of work in which the collaboration with its counterparts of other governments should be strengthened, said Senasica.
Allies will also be sought between the producers and marketers of both nations, so that consumers obtain greater guarantees so that healthy, safe and quality food can arrive at their table.
This is because preventive safety practices will be reinforced in the primary production of fresh and minimally processed fruits and vegetables, said the agency of the Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (Sagarpa).
On the instructions of the Secretary of Agriculture, José Calzada Rovirosa, the agreement includes training and exchange of information among producers for the implementation, certification and continuous verification of the safety schemes promoted by the Senasica and, with this, to be more competitive.
The agreement will allow suppliers of stores of the Food Marketing Institute and ANTAD to have high levels of compliance with standards, guidelines and safety practices, as established by the current regulations on agri-food matters of both nations.
According to the figures, the ANTAD has affiliated 5,410 self-service stores, 2,307 departmental and 43,992 specialized, while the United States organizes the main food retailers in that country.
Those involved also agreed to work in coordination to support the objectives of this alliance, by facilitating the understanding of food safety certification schemes, and developing educational and informational materials, he said.
In addition, it seeks to direct effective support to producers in Mexico to comply with the required safety standards, identify approaches for the training of personnel who implement, certify and verify compliance with standards in this area of agri-food products.
