GOVPH

To further promote the importance of the network in ensuring food safety, the Department of Science and Technology’s OneLab project management team joined the Association of Analytical Communities (AOAC) SEA Section 2nd Annual Conference held on August 1-2, 2023, in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

The team is composed of the project leader and DOST IX Assistant Regional Director for Finance, Administrative Support, and Technical Services, Ms. Rosemarie S. Salazar; Dr. Annabelle V. Briones, co-project leader and Director of Industrial Technology Development Institute (ITDI); and Mr. Admer C. Dablio, Project Coordinator and Quality and CPD Manager of ITDI led the poster presentation detailing the initiatives of the OneLab Network.

Titled “A Networking Success: The Role of the Philippines’ DOST OneLab Network in Ensuring Food Safety for Both the National and International Markets”, the poster presentation posited that many of the member laboratories under the OneLab Network come from testing laboratories that are being utilized to address the increasing needs from various stakeholders for testing of foods and food products to ensure safety and quality, meeting national and international requirements and standards. 

Through the network, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in remote areas of the Philippines, they said, can now have access to testing services to check if their food and food products are complying with quality requirements and are safe for consumption. 

This innovative solution has, in turn, enabled MSMEs to produce globally competitive food and food products that are able to penetrate the international market through the economies’ Mutual Recognition Arrangements (MRAs), since the products are tested by accredited laboratories based on PNS ISO/IEC 17025:2017. 

For years, the network has helped various sectors: (a) the regulatory bodies in the performance of their function to regulate foods and food products for the strict implementation of Republic Act (RA) 10611 or the Food Safety Act of 2013; (b) the big companies and MSMEs which don’t have internal quality assurance laboratories for their food quality and safety assessments, meeting requirements of their own customers; and (c) the policymakers for the development of food safety national and international standards from scientific data of the local settings in the Philippines. 

They said that the DOST OneLab has been influential not only in the monitoring of food safety and quality in the country but as well as in the contribution to the development of food national standards through the technical expertise provided by the DOST.

Pesticide residue as a food safety issue in SEA countries

Aside from the poster presentation, Dr. Briones served as one of the panelists in a panel discussion on the Need of Pesticide Analysis in the Southeast Asia Region.

The discussion focused on pesticide residue being one of the major food safety issues in Southeast Asian countries and on the discussion on the need of pesticide analysis in the Southeast Asian region with the intention to support international trade.

Ms. Edna Callejas-Mijares, RCh., MSc., CEO of Jefcor Laboratories, Inc., for the Philippines, presented “Pesticides Residues in Food and Food Products: Analysis and CODEX Standards for Maximum Residue Limits” which called for the harmonization of standards by adoption of CODEX Standards as provided for in the Food Safety Act of 2013 and she also served as one of the panelists.

Winner

Meanwhile, Abigail Grace H. Bion, RCh, MSc, and Science Research Specialist I from the National Metrology Division of DOST-ITDI, is one of the three (3) graduate and undergraduate students who won the Best Student Poster Awards conducted in the annual conference.

Ms. Bion won together with contestants from Indonesia and Vietnam, besting 12 students from seven (7) countries in Southeast Asia which were granted student travel awards by the AOAC SEA. 

In June 2021, the formation of a new Southeast Asia section of AOAC International was approved by the AOAC Board of Directors. The new section, AOAC Southeast Asia Section, encompasses 10 countries: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam.

Want to be a DOST OneLab Network member? Contact us at our email address, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. (By Rosemarie C. Senora, DOST-STII) 

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