Journal de nutrition et diététique

Abstrait

The Food Safety Law in Lebanon: What is next?

Adel Cortas

On 24 October 2016, the Food Safety Law in Lebanon was approved and published by the Parliament as Law N0:35. Consumers’ protection advocates, in Lebanon, were expecting the government to implement the provisions of the new safety law which can improve public health.The majority of the Lebanese public and international community questioned why that Lebanon waited goodbye until the top of the 20 th Century without having a Law covering Food Safety? it had been until the start of the 21th Century (in 2004) that a draft Law was introduced, by the Minister of Economy and Trade, Dr Bassil Flueihan, discussed and eventually approved by the Parliament. The solution to the present query came out that special private interests of some Lebanese agricultural producers and merchants were benefitting from the loose enforcement of the law and regulations to hunt the very best profit possible. In fact, before the publication of the Food Safety Law, there have been many government agencies within the different ministries; all of them were handling Food Safety, in a method or the opposite. But there was no coordination among them whatsoever.