DILI, 7 june 2023 (TATOLI)- World Health Organization in Timor-Leste is recommending to the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) to increase local food production, aimed to ensure people are consuming safe and nutritive foods.
WHO representative in Timor-Leste, Arvind Mathur said to ensure the community in Timor-Leste consumes safe foods, the Ministry of Agriculture should take an important part to produce more local foods.
” I believe that MoAF plays an important role and makes a lot of effort to increase to overall food security of the country. Thus, It can be ensured that Timorese people are able to consume safe and nutritive food,” WHO country representative in Timor-Leste, Arvind Mathur told Tatoli Agency on Delta Nova Comoro, this Wednesday
WHO observed that Timor-Leste depends on up to 50 percent import food, therefore it requires WHO’s support to help Timorese people to eat safe foods by working with the Ministry of Health, AIFAESA to examine the imported foods to prevent the side effects of contamination of imported food in Timor-Leste and ensure the quality of local foods.
“We are working hard in laboratories to find the capacity to monitor, measure, or to do the test for foods,” He said
WHO takes the importance of food safety tests, which are linked with the standardization of food safety.
It is known that based on the government KONSSANTIL data shows that 20% of Timorese people are still effect by insecure foods, which are about 300.000 people still across in country consuming unsafe food from May to September in 2023.
Journalist: José Belarmino De Sá
Editor: Nelia B.
