Food Safety

In projects developed in the area of food history and in the different symposia organised by ICREFH in the past 30 years, the history of the senses has remained in the background. However, the senses of smell, touch, sight, hearing, and taste are appealed to when we deal with the production of foods for consumption. The use of the senses, which is quotidian, but equally ephemeral, seems to be outside of the written scholarship produced by historians. The creation, by elites, of taste, of fashion, of " bon gout " , are familiar areas of discussion today. This symposium, which will be presented for the 30th anniversary of ICREFH, proposes moving forward in our analysis of this area by drawing on recent research. Each sense can be a separate topic of historical research. However, separating each sense activated by food presents a somewhat impoverished image. In fact, all the senses are at work when we are eating. Thus, let us take them as a whole so as to seize a " balance of the senses " (Corbin), a rapport among them which can appear in the form of a hierarchy or of a balance. This ensemble is produced, it grows, it transforms, and then it sometimes disappears. Actually, the enhancement of taste indicates a constructed and deliberate hierarchical organization. In the same way, a crunch activates our sense of hearing initially, with the other senses staying in the background. All of this remains to be explored in order to evaluate and historicise the place accorded to the senses vis-à-vis food by 19th and 20th century society. We shall approach the history of food and the senses by means of an event, a product, a particular source (a family journal, a cookery book...), prohibitions, speeches… On the basis of already familiar archives or by utilising lesser known sources is it possible to generate new avenues of research or to reinterpret previous research? Three main themes have been adopted, but the organizing committee is open to other proposals: 1 – An analysis of the hierarchy of the senses in the 19th and 20th centuries, and their transformations: these can be produced in various ways: • By vocabulary: In this time period how was specific vocabulary constructed (e.g., for wine), how were words for food and the senses created? Some words disappear or change their meaning. • Can we observe geographical food distinctions that arose from the senses? Did the combination of the senses and food play a part in the creation of nations or of nationalism (national dishes and the senses that are particularly connected to them). Can we distinguish between the senses developed at home, and those developed outside of the home? Do there exist places of intensity for the senses (the kitchen, for example)? Seasons? • Is the appeal of the senses a function of social group, stages in life, type, body type (fat or thin, small or large, healthy?). The analogy between body odours or social position and certain dishes and their odours should perhaps be explored: foot odour/ cheese; poverty/cabbage smell; wealth/gameyness. • The industrialization of the senses: a new hierarchy? 2 – Production and construction of norms Are there rules, and how are they applied when it is a question of combining colours, forms, tastes, and odours? We can envisage the roles of regulations, European or national, of specific trades (doctors, cooks…), hygiene and the senses, the media: the press, radio, books, religion…

Shariah and Islamic Value are interrelated but not necessarily understood. The Malaysian Standard (MS) is a standard developed and published by the Department of Standards Malaysia. These standard set in motion the policy and values of quality. With regards to food industry, there are three MS that is certifiable: MS 1480: Food Safety According To Hazard Analysis And Critical Control Point (HACCP) System, MS 1500: Halal Food – Production, Preparation, Handling And Storage – General Guidelines, and MS 1514 - Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) For Food. Although practiced and recognized globally, the standards are practiced in the Halal Industry do not adequately overcome all problems related to adulterant and contaminants of Haram and Syubhah substances. Incorporating Shariah and Islamic Value would greatly benefit the community and set the Food Industry towards a higher integrity of Halal Food safety and quality production. This paper will briefly introduce the Shariah and the Islamic Integrity Value Framework as well as the three standards regarding the requirements needed for implementation.

Ante una posible emergencia alimentaria, que podría llegar a ocurrir en el corto-mediano plazo (seis meses a un año), aquí se propone un Plan de Contingencia (Cruz Roja, 2008) Alimentaria para el departamento de Lavalleja. Que intenta vincular a distintas organizaciones e instituciones, tanto públicas como privadas, detrás de una red activa de contingencia inmediata.
El núcleo duro de este plan es poner a disposición del departamento todas aquellas tierras de las distintas instituciones públicas radicadas en el departamento (unidades militares, tierras de OSE, UTE, ANTEL y otros entes u organismos Estatales), para destinarlas al cultivo de ciertas hortalizas de rápido crecimiento que se enlistarán abajo, siguiendo criterios de celeridad temporal, facilidad de cultivo y propiedades nutricionales.
El rol coordinador central, lo llevará adelante la Intendencia Departamental, con la adquisición o preparación de semillas y la presentación del plan a los organismos correspondientes, tal cual lo mandata la Constitución Nacional y la Ley Orgánica Municipal (Ley Nº 9.515).
Estimamos que la posibilidad de que pueda surgir una situación de esta naturaleza es muy baja (menos del 9% de probabilidad de ocurrir), pero debemos ser precavidos y estar preparados en caso de que el peor escenario se presente.
No se pretende generar alarmismo con este plan, lejos de eso, queremos que existan los mecanismos preparados, para generar tranquilidad en caso de darse el peor escenario posible.