Fostering collaborative efforts to strengthen food control systems in Indonesia

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Professor Samuel Godefroy, President of the Global Food Regulatory Science Society (GFoRSS) and Professor of Food Risk Analysis and Regulatory Policies at Laval University, conducted a mission to Indonesia focused on exchanges with national food and quarantine authorities to explore opportunities to strengthen the national quarantine system.

The mission included discussions with the leadership and technical teams of Badan Karantina Indonesia (the Indonesian Quarantine Agency), following the recent integration of animal, plant, and fish quarantine functions. These exchanges identified opportunities to enhance quarantine operations through business process re-engineering, adoption of risk-based decision-making, increased reliance on pre-border risk assessment, application of multi-criteria decision analysis, and targeted digitalization to improve clearance of food and agri-food products.

Meetings with laboratory officials highlighted the role of laboratory science in supporting conformity assessment and risk-based quarantine decisions. High-level discussions were also held with the Indonesia Food and Drug Authority (BPOM), emphasizing the importance of coordination among food competent authorities for effective food control systems.

Professor Godefroy also met with senior leadership of the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), where, with the facilitation of Professor Aman Wirakartakusumah, discussions took place on organizing the Indonesia Global Food and Nutrition Summit to support national food security and food system development efforts.

The mission, facilitated by partners from the World Bank, provided valuable insight into ongoing reforms and identified opportunities for GFoRSS to contribute as a technical partner to Indonesia’s food safety, biosecurity, and food system strengthening initiatives.