AECOSAN President at Forum organised by El Norte de Salamanca
Post: Spanish Agency for Consumer Affairs, Food Safety and Nutrition
Date: 31 mayo 2017
Section: Nutrición
The Secretary General of Health and Consumer Affairs, from the Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality, and the president of AECOSAN yesterday took part in the Economic Forum in El Norte de Salamanca.
The title of the paper was "The Spanish Agency for Consumer Affairs, Food Safety and Nutrition. Its importance in the Protection of Health”.
Jose Javier Castrodeza underlined in Salamanca that Spain has high food safety standards, and that at international level it is a country of reference. He stressed the importance of the Spanish Agency for Consumer Affairs, Food Safety and Nutrition (AECOSAN) within the Spanish health structure, highlighting the relevance of food safety in which the central administration and the autonomous communities are involved, and stressing the vital role they play.
As Mr Castrodeza remarked, it is an international reference, and in the event of an incident, the monitoring services are able to identify the cause and establish the necessary corrective measures. The Spanish consumer can have peace of mind. It is not unusual to find different situations but that is the reason we have the authorities, to establish the relevant penalties.
During his speech, he stressed the importance of food business operators. In a setting of shared responsibility between administrations, economic operators and consumers, the operator is responsible for the safety of the product placed on the market. He highlighted the collaboration with the administrations throughout the process, from production until the product reaches the consumer.
Mr Castrodeza also mentioned the strength of the agri-food sector in Castilla and Leon and the guarantees offered. This is demonstrated by the fact that in 2016 there were only two incidents or food alerts of certain relevance in Castilla and Leon, a Community in which more than 700 people, out of the almost 7000 in the whole of Spain, work in the different areas of food control to guarantee its safety.
The Secretary General of Health and Consumer Affairs, and the president of AECOSAN also spoke about the problem of obesity, especially in infancy, and recalled that the NAOS Strategy for Nutrition, Physical Activity and the Prevention of Obesity has been in place for several years and seems to be starting to produce results, although there remains much still to do.
