Transcript Food Law and Legislation in Jordan

Background
Jordanian Food Official Sector
Food control System
Food Safety- Current Situation
Food Legislations and Legislations Enacting
Food Law
JFDA Act
Food Inspection System
Imported Food Control
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Outbreaks, Food Related Crises, A Scandal or
Catastrophe Occur.
Market Requirements (WTO).
New Technology in Food Science & Food Production/
Scientific development (metrology)
National / International Legislation
Globalization of Problems and Solutions
Increase of Consumer Awareness and Interest in
Food Hygiene and Food Quality.
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The craftsmanship and profession law no 16 of
1953 and the relevant revision “MMA”.
Public Health Law, Act 21/1971, Chapter 16, Food
& Drug “MoH”.
The Law no 54 of the year 2002: to replace law no.
21/ 1971 where food safety and control related
parts were removed.
The current food control regime in Jordan falls
under two laws: Agriculture Law No. 44 of 2002
and Jordanian Food Control Law 79/2001.
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After enforcement of food control law 79/2001,
and in the case of any discrepancies/ conflicts
between the 16/1953 and 79/2001 ,the
79/2001must prevail, and those in 16/1953
considered as cancelled.
Enforcement of food law is under the umbrella of
MoH until April 2003, JFDA was in charged by law
to held these responsibilities.
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The Jordanian food sector is governed by multiofficial authorities:
1.MoH/ JFDA; responsible according to the Food law
no. 79/2001 and Public Health Law no. 54/2002.
Departments involved:
Food Control,
Disease Control,
Health Safety Education,
Food laboratories,
border control committees and
District Health Directorates
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2. Ministry of Agriculture according to the
Agriculture law no. 44/2002.
Departments involved:
Veterinary,
Plant protection,
Pesticide residues center,
Veterinary laboratories and
border agricultural centres).
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3. Ministry of Industry and Trade
 Registration and licensing.
4. Jordanian Institute of Standards and Metrology
according to their JISM Law no. 22/2000.
5. Ministry of Municipalities according to Municipal law
and Slaughterhouses by-law no.1/1985
Public health,
Slaughterhouse,
Food and Meat laboratories.
6. Aqaba Special Economic Zone (ASEZA)
Directorate of Health and Food Control.
Ben Hayyan- Aqaba International Laboratories
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To Develop a Food Control System the following criteria
must be Established, Implemented, and Maintained:
Reliable food legislations and up-to-date valid
standards and rules.
Successful food safety strategy requires the integration
and co-ordination of food controls and Centralized
general administration to lay food control policies and
regulations, and supervise the implementation and of
these policies and regulations.
Bodies for enforcement of active legislations.
Suitable laboratories services to support the food
control activities.
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Jordan is a member in the World Trade Organization
WTO (April 2000), and international standard setting
bodies(Codex Alimentarius, Word Organization for
Animal Health, and International Plant Protection
Convention, and ISO).
Jordan have developed modern food control systems
based on risk management to monitor and control the
safety of domestically produced and imported food.
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Jordan has established a food and drug authority, Law
31/2003.
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Acting on assuring well-functioning foodborne
surveillance systems and reporting mechanisms.
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Jordan has embark on unifying food safety activities
from farm to fork.
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Reliability of food safety agencies
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Harmonization of Food laws (new proposal 2007).
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New technologies (currently for additives, GMO’s
are to follow).
The followings are emerging:
 Traceability
 Animal Cloning
 Nanotechnology
 Irradiation
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As a member of the WTO, Jordan has accepted the
responsibility of the terms of Membership.
This means that the measures imposed in
protecting the public health against hazards
associated with food from imported sources must
not be trade restrictive, arbitrary, or disguised
technical barriers to trade.
Measures are also to be scientifically justified using
risk assessment methods acceptable at the
international level
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Food legislations in Jordan have been updated to reflect
current developments and requirements.
Food regulations in Jordan classified into:
National
Codex Alimentarius
Countries exported to.
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The basic legislation that regulates food control in
Jordan is The National Food Law no.79/2001.
According to the food law, JFDA is the responsible
official agency entrusted to regulate and supervise food
control activities in Jordan.
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A number of enabling food regulations is available,
among the most important are:
 Regulations for the Transport, Storage and
Display of food products;
 Sampling Plans for Imported Food;
 Regulations for the Licensing of Food Plants.
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Other legislations related to food safety include
“Agriculture Law” which identifies the role of the
MoA in the areas of animal health, plant health,
and the use of pesticides, feed, fertilizers and
growth promoters.
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Food Rules and Standards;
Available are more than 300 food standards and technical
regulations issued by JISM in cooperation with other official
concerned agencies. Most of these standards are Codexbased, ISO methods also adopted.
Labelling Requirements;
 Labeling and marking requirements issued by the JISM.
 Legal requirements for labeling are fairly standard
although a statement of ingredients in order of
preponderance is not required.
 All labels must either be in Arabic or have a stick-on label
in Arabic.
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Labelling Requirements; cont.
 In general, the label should contain the name of the
products, the manufacturer’s name and address, net
weight, fortifying matter, lot number and “use
before” or “best before” date.
 Local labeling requirements do not include
Recommended Daily Intake (RDIs).
 Shelf life: The requirement of shelf life become as
the -“Best Before”- standard.
 Requirements Specific to Nutritional Labeling is
mandatory in certain categories of food such as
infant formula, …etc.
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Packaging And Container Regulations
 No restrictions are applied to either packaging
or container type.
 No specific restrictions are applied on the type
of packaging used.
Food Additive Regulations
 Regulated by JISM and JFDA.
 In general, permissible additives and their
concentrations are those approved by the CAC.
 The technical standards for foods contain
specific lists for food additive and their
permissible levels of use.
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Pesticide And Other Contaminates
 There is a laboratory capabilities for testing
pesticide residue, MoA, ASEZA and (RSS)
 The technical standards for food and agricultural
products require that pesticide residues not
exceed the recommended maximum residue levels
of the CAC.
 Pesticides used in Jordan must be approved for use
and registered/ Pesticides Registration Committee
MoA.
 Anyone who attempts to import unregistered
pesticides is subject to civil penalties.
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Other Specific Standards for Imported Food
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All imported foods should conform to the Jordanian
standards issued by (JISM).
All agricultural products may be imported by the
private sector (with the exception of wheat and
barley) if the products meet local quality standards,
which are set by JISM on the basis of the CAC.
In 2003, JISM instituted a pre-shipment inspection
program, which is entirely voluntary for food
importers.
Import licenses are not required for most imported
goods.
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Other Specific Standards for Imported Food
 Products require prior approval from MoA to insure that these
products meet local health standards:
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fresh, chilled and frozen meat and
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frozen animal semen and
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powdered milk for adults and babies.
Products require prior approval from MoA and MoI&T: special flour
and powdered milk for manufacturing purposes.
Importation of rice, sugar, and wheat derivatives has been
liberalized. The private sector may import these items into Jordan if
prevailing customs duties and taxes are paid and the product meets
local quality standards.
Alcoholic beverages may be imported into Jordan but high tariffs are
applied (50-180%) – as a revenue source for the government
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Laws
1.All laws issued through Legislation and Opinion Bureau, based on
Jordanian Constitution, and with coordination of Council of
Ministers.
2.Prime minister declare his convocation on passing proposed/draft
law (as project) submitted to the House of Representatives.
3.House of Representatives passes or rejects or amends the project.
4.When passed, the project is submitted to Senates (Assembly of
Notables’).
5.When passed its obligatory to be submitted to bicameral Jordanian
National Assembly (if officially held, other wise the law may passed
through the council of ministers considered to be interim law (the
same powerful of law).
6.The H.M. the King signs and executes all laws and they are
enforced according to a Royal Decree.
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Regulations
1. Regulations issued through Legislation and Opinion
Bureau, based on Jordanian Constitution, and with
coordination of Council of Ministers.
2. Council of Ministers prepares and enacts the
regulations. Regulations’ projects prepared by
Legislation and Opinion Bureau then passes and
submits the project to Council of Ministers.
3. House of Representatives do not involve.
4. The H.M. the King signs and executes all regulations
and enforced according to His Royal Decree.
5. Regulations effectively enforced after 30 days of
publishing on the official journal.
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Instructions
1.All instructions are issued through and by Council of
Ministers or related Ministry.
2.Instructions are issued to enact article or more of Law
articles, and they are enforced directly after their publishing
in the official journal.
3.Bicameral Jordanian National Assembly has nothing to do
with instructions.
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Food Rules and Standards
JISM is the official body for the preparation and publication of
Jordanian Standards.
The main tasks of JISM are to
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prepare, approve, revise and amend Jordanian mandatory or
voluntary standards and monitor their application; this is
performed by a technical committee related to food item, 75% of
votes is needed to accept the standard.
2.
Maintain a national system for metrology and supervise its
implementation;
3.
Approve quality marks and certificates of conformity;
4.
Adopt and approve standards of other countries and of Arab,
regional and international organizations, provided that such
standards were issued in Arabic or English; and
5.
To cooperate and coordinate with Arab, regional and international
institutions in the area of standardization and metrology.
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Objectives of Food Law:
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To pursue/ overtake the assurance of a high level protection
of human life and health.
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It establishes the general principles governing food quality
and safety at national level.
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Lays down the means to provide a strong science base,
efficient organizational arrangements and procedures to
strengthen decision-making in matters of food safety.
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Shall pursue the protection of consumers' interests in relation
to food, including fair practices in food trade.
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It shall aim at the prevention of:
Unsafe
food handling
Fraudulent or deceptive practices;
The adulteration of food; and
Any other practices which may mislead the consumer.
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Scope of the Law:
 This
law shall apply to all stages of handling of food
during the whole food chain.
 It
shall not apply to primary production, products
for private domestic use or to domestic preparation,
handling or storage of food for private
consumption.
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Food Law 79/2001 contains 31 articles.
In consideration with the valid agricultural law, JFDA
will be the only party responsible for food
supervision and health control including suitability
for human consumption on all its handling processes
whether locally produced or imported in
coordination with any formal party concerned.
Article3.
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Article 4, lists the tasks which must be taken to
accomplish the laws’ objectives.
Articles 5-9, describe the High Committee for Food
Control, and the formation of technical committees
and their role meetings and schedules.
Articles 10- 12 describe in detail the basic
principles of preparation, approving, revising,
applying, advertising, notifying and publishing of
health regulations, method of their applications,
and JFDA effective contribution with national and
scientific parties involved in these regulation.
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Articles describe the good food, false food,
adulterated/ mislead food, food handling and
premises 15- 18.
It is the responsibility of the DG (Article 19) to
issue directives for obligating any producer or
importer of the food within the period specified by
him to carry out the following:
Document showing the food contents.
Details of the ways of using and utilizing food.
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Juridical articles(20, 21) describe in detail the food
control process.
Penalties in case of violation (22, 23, 24).
Role of MoH/ Minister to coordinate with other
ministries, detailed on article 25.
General rules for authorities’ delegation, articles (2631).
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Successful food safety strategy requires the
integration and co-ordination of food controls. As a
result of this understanding, JFDA was established
under the JFDA Act, 2003, which came into effect on
16 April 2003.
The JFDA is a statutory, independent and sciencebased body, dedicated to protecting public health
and consumer interests in the area of food safety and
hygiene. It comes under the umbrella of the Minister
of Health, who chairs a board of ten members.
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Committees:
Higher Committee of food control" – chaired by the
Director General of the Administration that assists
and advises the board. (17 members).
Technical Committee: chaired by the Director of
Food Control.
B.S.E Committee.
Food Additives Committee.
Special foods Committee.
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Under the JFDA act, 2003, the JFDA has overall
responsibility to ensure that food legislation is
enforced.
This responsibility is carried out through various
official agencies such as the Ministry of Health
(MoH), Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), Jordan
Institution for Standards and Metrology (JISM),
zones free/ ASEZA and several municipalities.
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Control of imported food in Jordan is carried out at
the border inspection points (BIPs) under direct
control from JFDA, while inland food inspection is
carried out according to JFDA standards and
procedures by 21 Health Directorates distributed
all over the country as well as large municipalities
(especially AMMU) within their jurisdiction.
JFDA is essentially responsible for the enforcement
of food law applied after the level of primary
production rather than the law governing other
influences on food safety such as animal health,
animal feed or animal medicines.
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The official agencies involved are accountable to
JFDA for food safety enforcement activities,
programmers and standards of work.
In July 2003, the JFDA entered into its first
“memorandum of understanding” with the MoH,
which details duties and responsibilities of the MoH
and JFDA in the area of food control.
Other memorandums of understanding with other
agencies are followed.
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The memorandums of understandings outline an
agreed level and standard of food safety activity
that agencies perform.
It is understood that overtime JFDA will assume
responsibility for the functions currently residing
with other official agencies. However, and until this
is reached, it is essential that activities of these
agencies are coordinated, so that any gaps or
overlaps are eliminated.
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Monitoring of imported food for compliance with food
regulations is based on a risk based system. Food
products have been classified to three categories (high,
medium, and low risk) based on the potential health
risk associated with each category. Based on this
classification, levels of inspection and sampling
operations for laboratory analysis have been identified.
The control is conducted through the computerized
selectivity module of the Automated System for Custom
Data (ASYCUDA).
RBS adopted at ASEZA Customs Center in May 2002 and
at Amman Customs Center in January 2004.
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