July 15 final deadline for the setting up of the National Committee for Food Safety

The failure of government to start implementing the Food Safety Law issued on November 24, 2015, and its delay in issuing a decree that endorses the establishment of a Lebanese Committee for Food Safety, has prompted concerned civil society organizations to take action in order to stop further disregard to public health and safety.  In this respect, and upon their instigation, a judicial decision was issued on June 23d which ordered the closing of Matahen Lubnan Al Haditha (Lebanon New Mills) for non-compliance with relevant specifications. Furthermore, and in an attempt to inform citizens, a number of civil society groups, notably, the Legal Agenda, the Consumer Protection in Lebanon and Farah al Ataa associations held a joint press conference yesterday calling on the government and political parties to form the above committee before July 15th. Participants warned that failure to form the said committee shall prompt public protests to stop health related crimes outright. During the said conference, a CD was distributed to the media It included a video of horrific scenes inside LNM mills. Apparently, as the video shows, health ministry inspectors have not visited the premises of Matahen Lubnan before, where birds, rats and rodents feed on wheat and their froth is mixed with the basic food of most of the Lebanese population. 

In the same vein and in response to the series of scandalous events the latest of which was the death from food poinsoning of a boy from Akkar in the North (http://lkdg.org/ar/node/15274), the minister of health, Wael Abu Faoor, organised a press conference yesterday, in which he announced new and tighter measures, These measures will entail the immediate closing of any violating food establishment, which fails to observe the standards of food safety, and replaces the system of warnings or notices, which the minister acknowledged, were ineffective. (An Nahar, Al Diyar, As Safir, Al Akhbar, Al Mustaqbal, June 28, 2016)