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  3. Ladies and Gentlemen, Ten years ago, food safety was not on many people’

Ladies and Gentlemen, Ten years ago, food safety was not on many people’

游客2023-12-25  35
问题     Ladies and Gentlemen,
    Ten years ago, food safety was not on many people’s mind in Europe. We all expected our food to be safe, not only because it generally was safe, but also because incidences of chemical or microbiological contamination were local in nature. So was the reporting about them. A conference like this one would not generate much interest beyond the people present. //
    What a contrast with the present. Today, food safety is one of the highest priority issues for consumers, producers and governments alike, all over Europe. //
    What has caused this change? The occurrence of BSE, of course, which brought with it the link to the terrible and fatal Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, created a widespread and deep-set unease about meat products. Yet, for a long time, continental Europeans left the worrying to the unfortunate British, safe in their conviction that the danger was contained by the Channel. //
    No longer. The consequences of BSE are felt across Europe and beyond. And the recent occurrence of foot-and-mouth disease spread alarm across Europe in a matter of days. even though it has no direct relation to human health. Through such and other incidents, European consumers have woken up to the reality that the trade in food and farm products is truly international—not least because countries of origin are clearly marked on supermarket produce. They are starting to discover the intricate network of international trade that underlies the food industry and brings products to supermarket shelves. //
    Still, based on evidence, it is clear that the main food safety problems are not the spectacular outbreaks which make their way into the media. In fact, the problem is a vast number of sporadic cases, many of which not only fail to reach the headlines; they don’t even make it into our reporting system. //
    As I look at the vast area of food safety from the point of the World Health Organization, I see three major challenges to protect the health of the consumer:
    1) We need to accept that the systems we use in Europe to ensure food safety are not as good as we have come to believe. To improve these systems and re-establish consumer confidence, we must reassess them all the way from the farm to the table; //
    2) We need to ensure reasonable food safety standards that apply throughout the world and assist all countries to reach these standards. In the long run, it is in our own self interest to do so. Secondly, unless we do so, developing countries cannot participate in global trading systems: //
    3) We must develop global standards for pre-market approval systems of genetically modified food to ensure that these new products not only are safe, but also beneficial for consumers and more efficient than existing products. //
    (Excerpts from the speech "Food Safety—a World-wide Challenge" by Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Director-general of World Health Organization, Uppsala, Sweden)
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答案     女士们，先生们：
    10年前，食品安全还没有引起欧洲人的关注。我们都认为我们的食品是安全的，不仅仅因为过去食品总体说来是安全的，而且也由于发生的化学和微生物污染事件只是在局部地区，关于这些事件的报道也是如此。过去像这样的会议除了与会者之外，不会引起其他人的兴趣。//
    现在的情形大不一样了。如今在整个欧洲，食品安全对于消费者、生产商和政府来说是头等重要的事情这一。//
    是什么引起了这种变化?当然是疯牛病的出现，疯牛病与可怕而致命的变异克——雅氏病联系在一起，因而引起人们普遍对肉制品深感不安。然而在很长一段时间，欧洲大陆人把这种不安留给了不幸的英国人，因为他们确信危险已经被英吉利海峡阻断了。//
    情况已不再是这样。疯牛病席卷整个欧洲并已蔓延到欧洲以外的地区。尽管近来发生的口蹄疫对人体健康并没有直接的影响，但它很快在欧洲引起警觉。通过这样和其他一些突发事件，欧洲消费者开始意识到这样一个现实：食品和农产品的贸易的确是国际性的——尤其是超市的农产品都清楚的标着原产地国家的名字。他们开始发现食品工业背后以及将产品带到超市货架上的是复杂的国际贸易网络。//
    有证据表明，食品安全的主要问题并不是那些经媒体报道的突发事件。事实上，问题在于大量不定期发生的事件不仅未能成为头条新闻，甚至也没有引起媒体的关注。//
    从世界卫生组织的角度来看食品安全的方方面面，我意识到为了保护消费者的健康，我们面临着三个巨大的挑战：
    1．我们需要接受的是我们用于保证欧洲食品安全的系统并不像我们想象的那么理想。为了改进这些系统和重新树立消费者的信心，我们必须对从养殖场到餐桌的所有环节进行重新评级；//
    2．我们需要确保合理的、适用于全球的食品安全标准，并帮助所有国家达到这些标准。从长远来看，这样做符合我们自身的利益。其次，如果我们不这样做，发展中国家就不可能加入到全球贸易体系中来；//
    3．我们必须为转基因食品获准上市提供全球化的检测标准，以确保这些新产品不仅是安全的，而且对消费者有益，同时比现有产品更为有效。//
    (节选自世界卫生组织前总干事布伦特兰博士在瑞典乌普萨拉发表的演讲“食品安全——世界范围的挑战”)
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