Barbados Trade and Tourism Minister Haynesley Benn wants regional manufacturers and importers to take a greater measure of responsibility for ensuring that foods marketed within Caricom pose no health risks to regional consumers.
Addressing a November 1-2 regional training seminar on Caricom’s rapid alert system for exchange of information on dangerous consumer goods, Benn advocated “a Caricom approach” to ending a “piecemeal” attitude to the monitoring of food imports to ensure that their consumption poses no danger to the health of the people of the region, underpinned by “a duty to care” on the parts of manufacturers and importers and a responsibility on the part of consumers to make “informed choices.”
Alluding to a recent audit, which he said “revealed the need for greater cooperation and coordination of action of regional bodies in respect of protecting the health and safety of