Special Food Division meeting

The Special Foods and Food Additives Division of the Chamber of Food Industries, headed by Dr. Adel Ismail, held its regular meeting to discuss the issue of private food sector exports in light of the current changes in the export markets, especially the regional markets and the markets of the European Union countries, in the presence of Dr. Ashraf Sami, General Director of the General Administration of Exports at the National Food Safety Authority, and a number of the Chamber’s member companies, on Wednesday, August 16, 2023.

During the meeting, Dr. Adel Ismail, head of the division, stressed the importance of enhancing cooperation and coordination between the Chamber of Food Industries and the National Food Safety Authority to support member establishments to comply with food safety requirements. He pointed out that special foods and food additives meet the highest standards and requirements for export to the Gulf markets, Europe, and America, especially with regards to traceability and retrieval requirements of the products.

He pointed out that there must be coordination at the country level to update standard specifications and technical requirements and have international references for them to encourage international trade and ensure the continued export of Egyptian national products.

While noting that the process of inventorying consignments of special food exports from January to July reflected a significant increase from what was the case in previous years, Dr. Ashraf Samy, General Director of the General Administration of Exports at the National Food Safety Authority, for his part, confirmed that the administration is concerned with registering and granting certificates of validity and compliance with the regulatory procedures and legislation applied in importing countries.

At the end of the meeting, Dr. Adel Ismail touched on the project to update Resolution No. 4 of 2020 based on the industry’s request to update the resolution to be consistent with recently issued international legislation. He stated that this amendment represents a qualitative leap.

While Engineer Al-Shahat Selim, Deputy Executive Director for Legislation and Government Relations at the Chamber, presented the content of the draft additives and asked companies to provide the Chamber with any items that must be included so that they can be studied and taken into account when the final decision is issued.