ICD-SEAMEO Cooperative Program

FAO/WHO International Conference on Nutrition (ICN) held in Rome in 1992 recognized food safety as an important and integral part of a healthy life. The Plan of Action for Nutrition was itself designed to provide guidelines for governments acting in partnership with non-governmental organizations, the private sector, local communities and the international community including international organizations.

As follow up of ICN then ICD was founded in 1992.  The Industry Council for Development (ICD) is a private non-profit organisation in official relations with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and having liaison status with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the UN. Members of ICD are companies from the food and allied industries. This small group of motivated professionals works with governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and UN agencies on practical action-oriented projects in the developing world. ICD is working to improve public health through practical partnership projects aimed at food safety and nutrition goals.

ICD and the SEAMEO-TROPMED Regional Center for Community Nutrition University of Indonesia agree to co-operate with objective to foster human resource development in the field of food safety in Indonesia and its Southeast Asian neighbor countries. This co-operation, named the ICD-SEAMEO Cooperative Program will give priority, in principle, to action-oriented initiatives. The SEAMEO-TROPMED Regional Center for Community Nutrition University of Indonesia will act as a focal point for ICD activities in Southeast Asian neighbor countries within SEAMEO.

Food Safety Course
The 1992 International Conference on Nutrition (ICN) recognized that "… access to nutritionally adequate and safe food is a right of each individual." Clearly, food cannot be nutritious if it is not safe to eat; foodborne diseases may lead to malnutrition, which in turn makes individuals more susceptible to foodborne infections and intoxications.
This is why food safety training and education are one of the priorities of the ICD/SEAMEO Cooperative Program. Every year the ICD/SEAMEO Cooperative program conduct a Short Course on Food Safety for Nutritionists and Other Health Professionals in Jakarta, Indonesia as part of its curriculum for master in community nutrition at SEAMEO TROPMED RCCN UI.
The course comprises ten modules. The modular design allows the course to be adapted to local needs.  It emphasizes practical knowledge and skills that nutritionists can use to recognize unsafe food and food preparation practices, and shows how this knowledge can be applied to develop intervention strategies.

The teaching material included lectures, tutorials, syndicate groups, videos, a field exercise amongst the local street vendors, and a visit to a local food factory or large scale catering operation.  Since an interactive approach is essential to encourage and involve the students and help them to acquire skills, the course also includes group work such as field studies and classroom exercises.

The overall objective of the food safety course is to teach nutritionists the basic principles of food safety so that they will be able to recommend foods that are safe as well as nutritious. At the end of the course the participants will be able to: understand what safe foods are and how foods safety can be achieved; recognize unsafe foods and preparation practices; understand the effect of infection on nutrition; intervene in preventing foodborne diseases; and teach the principles to others.

The course is designed for 20-25 participants to allow effective interaction between teachers and students.  It is important to have such a mix of participants from different sectors of the food profession such as from academia, government officials and managers from food companies, since partnership among stakeholders works best if all sectors receive the same "message" about the preventive approach towards food safety. This view has long been held by the World Health Organization.

Train of the Trainers Workshop
A further two-day module has been added to "train the trainers" to set up and run the course in other countries. Train of the Trainers program had been conducted in Jakarta with the main objective to cascade and disseminate food safety principles. Since 1996 up to January 2004, about 58 trainers from Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Pakistan, and Latin America had participated in the program. As the results since 1997-2004, cascade of similar course was undertaken in Vietnam, Lao PDR, Thailand, and Latin America. 

ICD/SEAMEO Newsletter
A short quarterly newsletter "Food Safety Matters" has been launched since 1996 in order to keep the vital food safety messages alive amongst the course alumni and to achieve the following objectives: to help maintain a high awareness of food safety issues amongst nutritionists and other professionals in South East Asia; to encourage fellow nutritionists to share information on food safety; to remind nutritionists that almost all foodborne diseases are preventable; and to remind nutritionists of the expertise available through SEAMEO, ICD and WHO. 

Contact us
The ICD/SEAMEO Cooperative Program playing a role as a center in providing information on training of food safety related at national and region.

We can support you through:
- Training materials; manual,  WHO publication
- share experiences in cascading the course
- GMP & HACCP expertise
- factory visit in ICD members companies
- networking among ICD/SEAMEO alumni

You can contact us at:
ICD/SEAMEO Cooperative Program
SEAMEO TROPMED Building
Campus of UI, Salemba Raya 4
Jakarta 10430
INDONESIA
Ph. + 62 21 390 9205, 391 3932
Fax + 62 21 391 3933
E-mail: icd@cbn.net.id