Strategic Plan for a New Modern National Agricultural Health and Food Control System in Barbados.

The Strategic Plan for a New Modern National Agricultural Health and Food Control System is a national policy with a cross-sectoral approach. The main purpose of this Strategic Plan is to improve public health and increase quality and competitiveness of agricultural and fishery products by raising agricultural health and food safety standards to international levels.
This Strategic Plan sets forth activities to ensure food safety and quality towards (I) consumer protection, (II) competitiveness of industries, (III) institutional capacity building, and (IV) protection of environment. Legislative and regulatory framework for food safety, veterinary drugs control, animal health, food standards, consumer protection, agricultural health and food control will be improved. A Technical Management Committee will be established to facilitate the cooperation and communication needed for the development and enactment of legislation as well as achievement of other goals, objectives and tasks in this Strategic Plan. National controls will be established for harmful plants and animals, pests and diseases to prevent and control threats to Barbadian plant and animal health, in accordance with international norms. Risk assessment units will be established for animal health, plant health and food safety through the systematic collection, analysis and interpretation of the data in order to evaluate and identify the ten highest risk priority plant diseases or invasive species, and the ten highest risk priority animal diseases. Standards will be developed for plant health, animal health and food safety in accordance with the Codex Alimentarius, Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, the World Organisation for Animal Health and the International Plant Protection Convention. Food control management systems will be strengthened with a farm-to-fork approach. The monitoring and inspection systems will be developed for the agricultural sector, including HACCP, Good Agricultural Practices, Good Manufacturing Processes, and traceability. Moreover, a traceability and recall system will be developed for the food industry. The quality assurance programmes will be developed for the laboratories and inspection and quarantine facilities at ports of entry. Awareness of industry, consumers and other relevant persons and organisations will be raised through training, access to information, and communication. Food safety emergency response systems will be developed for active surveillance of foodborne diseases and related epidemiologic studies.
The National Agricultural Health and Food Control Agency shall be responsible for the monitoring of the implementation and reporting the progress of this Strategic Plan. Moreover, the Agency shall carry out annual evaluations of the National Agricultural Health and Food Control Systems to ascertain progress, accomplishments, issues/problems and future needs.