The S.F.D.A revealed yesterday in Jeddah that it intends to emanate a comprehensive plan to control food that passes through the Saudi borders.
D. Mohammed bin Ahmed Alkanhal the executive president of the S.F.D.A stated during the meeting which was organized by Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry with businessmen that " the S.F.D.A seeks choosing a suitable controlling pattern by making use of similar experiences that suit the Saudi living conditions". He also expressed his hope of '' setting an organizing high performance framework during six months aims to support the food and drug control''.
D. Alkanhal mentioned that " there is not a comprehensive food system until now but there are several lists and regulations from different authorities, and food laboratories in the borders should be re-framed". He pointed at " the importance of having a comprehensive national program to monitor pesticides residue in food" and added that " controlling foreign workers is a big challenge faces the food sector of the S.F.D.A".
He emphasized the importance of applying controlling procedures on marketed drugs and cosmetics, and building up effective Saudi labors and powers specialized in laboratories fields to ensure the speed and accuracy of food specimen results. He also added that " he thinks that the controlling system of cosmetics will be ready during two years and an automatic system regarding drug registering will be set ". He also highlighted the necessity of establishing a national center to monitor drugs side effects and building up an efficient system of communication and drug education beside making a national record of medical devices and their use.
D. Alkanhal reviewed the idea of establishing the S.F.D.A which started in 1409 H, by his royal highness the crown prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz, mentioning that it is an independent authority and it is related directly to the Board of Councils.
He stated too that the S.F.D.A aims to ensure the safety of food and drugs consumed by people or animals and safety of biological preparations and enhance health in general in the Kingdom. He revealed that the S.F.D.A has started its project of the strategic plan in order to determine its general tendencies and ensure achieving the desired goals.
D. Alkanhal mentioned that " the project aims to determine some indicators and strategic values of the S.F.D.A to ensure work efficiency and quality, make several meetings with different authorities to examine the current status and designate the obstacles and motivations of work beside studying the international experiences to make use of them in forming the strategic tendencies".
D. Alkanhal reviewed the recent status of medical devices and products, stressing that there is no authority responsible of controlling medical devices and products beside that there is no system and regulations to monitor them.
In addition, he stated that the first strategic base of the S.F.D.A plan is analyzing the current status and studying the successful international experiences. Also, he ensured that the S.F.D.A adopts the principle of transparency and integration with all relative authorities and uses new technology to establish a strong infrastructure that complies with the latest
developments. D. Alkanhal expressed his hope regarding the S.F.D.A of being a regional pioneer authority in field of food, drug and medical devices so it offers its services professionally participating in protecting and enhancing health in the Kingdom.
On the part of his Excellency Mr. Saleh Alturkey, the Board of Directors Chairman of Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, he focused on the important role of the S.F.D.A in monitoring food and drugs and reviewed what is announced daily by newspapers about the large decayed tons of food stating that this issue is a big challenge faces the S.F.D.A. In addition, he ensured the necessity of benefiting from successful international experiences beside applying severe punishments on people whom breach the law to restrict the crimes of spreading decayed food.

The source: Alhayat newspaper.