» Recommendations

Covering food safety, a public health issue

Journalists and editors from 11 countries discussed the food safety situation in South East Europe during a study tour from 4 to 8 March, 2008 in Budapest. Presentations and discussions of the participants from Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Macedonia Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia focused on the institutional structure, monitoring and tracking systems of food safety, consumer rights and also on special issues concerning the coverage of food safety topics in media.

Participants agreed to sum up their conclusions in order to draw public attention to issues related to food safety regulations and policies in their countries, make recommendations for journalists with the aim to inspire more in-depth stories.

• Legal harmonization with acquis communitaire of the European Union has only started in some countries, while in others already in the EU, the legal framework is sound and in line with EU regulations. Reference to EU regulation seems to be a useful pressure on governments in most of the South East European countries to comply with international standards of food safety.
• In the above mentioned countries of South East Europe the existing institutional structure of food safety regulation, monitoring and control is in a transitional phase and often not transparent; it does not meet the highest international requirements.
• Responsibilities and scopes of food safety monitoring and controlling institutions often overlap, or have gaps; restructuring efforts often lead to a rivalry among such public institutions.
• Various government and public institutions on food safety issues do not always coordinate information for the public, which may result in non-adequate, contradictory or controversial communication undermining their credibility.
• The Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) exists in most countries in the region, but governments are selective about communicating food safety risks to the population (e.g. guar gum alert in the EU in 2007).
• There is no reliable statistics on casualties related to food borne diseases.
• There is no reliable statistics on the number and capacities of food safety laboratories; the data provided by such labs are not always reliable; labs are often not well-equipped (obsolete), their tests are expensive and it takes too much time to get results even from EU reference labs.
• Old food safety standards (GOST) may coexist with new ones (HACCP, ISO) which make safety controlling difficult in some countries of the region.
• Corruption persists regarding food safety inspections; regular checks are executed in some countries, in others there is a lax implementation of monitoring partially due to the lack or shortage of qualified staff.
• Consumer protection laws exist in the countries of South East Europe, but consumer consciousness of the societies is not sufficiently developed, although consumer protection NGOs have been gradually increasing their voice in Slovenia, Hungary, Croatia, Macedonia, Bulgaria and Serbia.
• Fake labeling is a common abuse of food safety regulations in the region; officials, authorities, companies often do not take any responsibility in case of scandals, only individuals are blamed.
• Food industry has built a self-regulatory system in Bulgaria, in others this is not in place yet.

2. Reporting on food safety by the media in South East Europe

• Importance of food safety issues is underestimated; food safety is not a sexy topic for media, it rarely gets to cover pages in most countries;
• Official information of public interest in crisis cases is often released with a delay; access to official documents is frequently denied to journalists;
• Due to the lack of sufficient information or unprofessional handling of such stories, media send mixed or sensational messages to consumers adding to their panic or unfounded boycott of products;
• Relations between media and food safety institutions are often problematic because of PR-type communication or withheld information by food safety institutions;
• Journalists do not cover food problems in neighboring countries;
• Rare investigative reports appear on food safety issues;
• There are no reliable food safety/quality test magazines for consumers in the region;

3. Recommendations

A/ Policy and institutional recommendations

• Establishment of a single, efficient and transparent national authority on food safety to avoid overlaps among institutions responsible for regulation, monitoring and tracking of food;
• Legal regulation on a national level should be more simple and transparent; self-regulatory mechanisms should be established on an industry level;
• Better implementation of national laws, and their harmonization with EU directives/regulations should be completed (they should provide reference points);
• Implementation of EU standards by exporting companies should serve as good examples for producers targeting domestic markets;
• State authorities should acknowledge the NGO sector as an important partner in education on food safety;
• Statistics of food safety related problems should be improved, data should be released;
• Authorities should communicate clear messages to producing or trading companies and the media when they encounter crisis situations;
• Efficient food traceability systems should be encouraged and built on a national and industry level;
• Local food productions should be encouraged and strengthened through various support schemes;

B/ Recommendations to journalists

• In order to gain the trust of the public, journalists should handle food safety issues with special care;
• The sensitive character of food safety issues requires high professional standards of journalism and a sense of responsibility when covering such topics. Journalists should avoid sensationalism, which might cause unnecessary harm to health or lead to a serious damage of prestige or economic loss. Journalists should be fair by reporting proven facts.
• Journalists should have access to and check the released official data and documents of public interest on food safety issues;
• Journalists should use the methods of networking in order to access more sources and alerting colleagues about food safety crisis situations;
• When reporting on food safety problems, journalists should also search for solutions;
• Cross-country cooperation between journalists should be encouraged and helped on issues of international scope;
• Journalists covering food related topics should avoid any advertising content (hidden advertising, product placement or PR information). Such materials should be separated from journalistic content;
• Journalists should not accept gifts from the companies they are covering, in this field the relevant ethical rules of reporting should be applied;
• Specialized training programs for journalists can lead to improved coverage of food safety related topics (for example journalists should be encouraged to build their own database of the field and use other tools of computer assisted reporting and investigative journalism);

Budapest – Center for Independent Journalism – 8 March, 2008