THE Negros Oriental Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NOCCI) has recently initiated a Food Safety Awareness Summit in a bid to compete with Association of Southeast Asian Nations that are now strictly following global food standards.
NOCCI president Edward Du said that with more than 700 participants, this is the biggest food safety summit in the Visayas.
Participants during the summit included street food vendors, micro small medium enterprises (MSMEs), local producers, students, faculty, and local government units in the province.
“This is to let them become aware of the importance of food safety, sanitation, and hygiene especially our street food vendors,” he added.
NOCCI also intends to encourage the MSMEs or the street food vendors to comply with Republic Act 10611, or the Food Safety Act of 2013.
During the summit, AFOS Foundation of Germany program manager Deitmar Speckmaier talked about “AFOS Our Food Program” as one of the resource speakers.
A Muslim leader was also invited to discuss Halal food processing as Du said the chamber encourages businesses to establish Halal restaurants and food outlets due to the growing number of Muslims in the province.
Du is also pushing to establish a Halal-certified restaurant for the Halal industry in the Visayas. (PIA-Negros Oriental)