Food Stars Pty Ltd

Building food safety programs around the world

By July 2007, in Indonesia, there were:

• approx 1,000 One Star premises in 26 provinces and

• 17 Two Star premises

• 6 Three Star premises

Over 250,000 people had been trained as part of the Star Award program.

Many clients have asked for more information about the Indonesian food safety project that the Food Stars founders are involved with.

Who would have believed that a chance meeting by a visionary chemist at a conference would lead to the eventual training of thousands of food analysts and food inspectors and the development of a national Integrated Food Safety System for Indonesia?

The project commenced in 1998 with a food chemist, Mr Stewart Jones, who worked for the Australian Government Analytical Laboratory (AGAL) meeting at a conference with Mr Basrah Enie the director of the Institute for Research and Development of Agro Based Industries (part of the then Indonesian Ministry Industry and Trade). 

Mr Enie explained that some food products tested in Indonesia prior to export to Australia had good results and were exported.  However, on arrival in Australia, some of the same products were tested by AGAL with different results.  The consignments were sent back to Indonesia or destroyed.   In addition, some consignments were rejected because their labelling did not conform to Australian requirements or they contained additives that were not permitted.

After much discussion, Mr Jones and Mr Enie developed a proposal and applied for Aus-AID funding to train food analysts, educate food exporters about labelling laws in Australia and raise awareness about food safety programs to government and industry.

Food Stars founders, Ian Doughty and Carole Theobald provided the food labelling education for food exporters and assisted Mr Christopher Soames (a food chemist/food safety auditor contracted to AQIS) with the delivery of a HACCP training course to food inspectors.  

Through this work the team met key people from the newly formed National Agency for Drug and Food Control (NADFC) and the Ministry of Agriculture and the project developed into two distinct streams:  food analysis and food safety.

Mr Jones and Mr Soames (until his untimely death in 2001) led the food analysis team and were supported by Dr Ken Newton (AGAL microbiologist) and other key consultants.  This team provided chemical and microbiological training to thousands of food analysts throughout Indonesia and also introduced training in laboratory quality management, measurement uncertainty and measurement traceability.  In 2004, AGAL was reorganised to become part of the new National Measurement Institute and the continuation of the work in Indonesia was beyond the scope of the new organisation.

Mr Doughty and Mrs Theobald led the Indonesian food safety team and facilitated the development of the National Integrated Food Safety System (IFSS) that is based on a model developed by the World Health Organisation.  The IFSS takes the WHO model to a higher level and establishes three networks:  food intelligence, food control and food safety communication so experts from all areas of government and industry can synergise their food safety information.

To translate information into action, the team identified and are developing three subprograms: Star Award for Food Safety, Food Watch and Rapid Reponse.

The Star Award for Food Safety is a government run program that encourages food businesses, from paddock to plate, to voluntarily adopt food safety programs. There are three levels to the award:  One Star level shows all food handlers have food safety training; Two Star level shows the premises are suitable, procedures are followed and worksheets are completed accurately and the Three Star level shows a HACCP based food safety program is in place.

By 2005, the team had developed materials for the food service and food manufacturing sectors and in February 2006, there were 535 One Star premises in 26 provinces in Indonesia. 

The Food Watch program regularly holds seminars on food safety issues that brings together government officers, industry and academia.  The seminars are very popular and held in different places in Indonesia.  Newsletters and Food Watch reports help communicate the latest information from the network.

The Rapid Response program is in its infancy and relies on a wider uptake of food safety programs by industry to identify problems and more training for food inspectors to solve them before it can be fully developed.

After the demise of AGAL, Mr Doughty and Mrs Theobald had to find another Australian Government partner to be eligible for the AusAID funding.  The Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry could see the value of the project and agreed to be the new Australian Government Partner.

For 2006-7, funding was obtained from AusAID to introduce the Star Award in the fruit and vegetable sector of agriculture and also develop suitable training materials for food inspectors to facilitate or audit the Star Award program.

The consultants were able to bring together a team consisting of officers from the Indonesian Department of Agriculture, Department of Trade and the National Agency for Drug and Food Control.  This in itself was quite an achievement.  The Indonesian Department of Agriculture is enormous - thousands in the Jakarta head office and there are hundreds of thousands of officers around the country who work for the provincial and local governments. The Agriculture officers on our team all worked at the head office, but in different divisions; fruit, vegetables, standardisation and biosecurity.  They had not met or worked together before and they learned a lot about their own agency through the 'cross pollination' that was possible by working on the same team.

The team travelled to North Sumatra, Riau, Padang, South Sulawesi, West Java, East Java, Jogyakarta and Jakarta, visiting farms and packing houses filming the food safety activities.  Together, suitable One, Two and Three Star Award materials were developed and agricultural extension officers in the provinces were trained by the team to train their local farmers to the Two Star level.  The team used many hands on activities to get the main points across including traditional puppets.

The second half of the project was to develop training materials for food safety auditors.  The team was divided into small groups that facilitated the introduction of One, Two and Three Star programs in a range of fruit and vegetable, food manufacturing and food service settings.  The facilitation process was filmed - the things that worked as well as those that did not!  The consultants then trained the team in the principles of auditing and the small groups set about auditing the programs facilitated by other groups.  Again the process was filmed.  The materials were then consolidated into an Auditor's manual and Auditor's handbook.  An extremely practical auditor's training course was developed using the film clips from the on site visits and the consultants challenged the team at every stage so they had a thorough understanding of the auditing role.  The team were then mentored as they presented the final training course to officers from regional areas.  This training course provides the core of the future national Star Award auditing training team.

This has been a huge job but very satisfying.  Our neighbours face incredible challenges but through this project we have shown that by working 'together we can improve food safety in Indonesia from paddock to plate'. 

Bersama-sama kita membangun keamanan pangan dari lahan hingga siap dikonsumsi.

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© Food Stars Pty Ltd

Last updated 16th  April 2008