The President stated that the country has adequate capacities to supply and produce healthy and accessible food for everyone, and called ensuring the safety of food in the chain of supply, production, distribution and consumption as another important point in ensuring food security and said that the Ministry of Health is responsible for developing and monitoring the statistics of food health indicators, and the Ministry of Agricultural Jihad should also determine the health indicators in the field of planting, growing, harvesting, processing, transportation and distribution of food and protein products and closely monitor their compliance.
Speaking at the meeting of the Supreme Council of Health and Food Security on Monday afternoon, Dr Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi stated that food security means the supply and production of healthy, cheap, quality and accessible food for everyone, relying on domestic capacities, as one of the most important components of ensuring and maintaining the country's health and added, “The existence of a stable food system and preventing fluctuations in the abundance of necessary food in the country is one of the necessities of food security”.
Emphasising the observance of health indicators in the entire food supply chain, Dr Raisi emphasised the necessity of using knowledge-based companies active in this sector and the available technologies to improve the health of people's nutrition and smarten the supervision of this process.
The President considered it necessary to prepare an annex of justice for the processes of providing food security and stated, “The implementation of justice in the process of food security depends on determining the necessary indicators in the field of the amount of calories and protein needed for the people and monitoring its provision in an appropriate manner”.
Dr Raisi described negligence in providing the food security of the society by related institutions as a violation and irreparable damage and emphasised the necessity of cooperation of all departments including Food and Drug Organisation, Standard Organisation, Veterinary Organisation and other related departments in the field of providing food security.
The President considered compliance with food safety indicators and improving the quality of food products produced in the country as important components of the country's regional and global authority, and emphasised the maximum use of all the country's capacities to achieve self-sufficiency in food production, as well as monitoring the implementation of the priority cultivation model for basic goods.
Dr Raisi further described the Ministry of Agricultural Jihad responsible for food production and the Ministry of Health responsible for determining and monitoring indicators in food production and clarified, “The Ministry of Agricultural Jihad, in cooperation with the producer and consumer support organisation, is responsible for regulating food production and supply, the price and preventing any abuses against the producer and the consumer”.
Emphasising the necessity of managing the market and prices, especially preventing the supply of goods that have been supplied or produced at higher prices with a nominal currency, the President considered the export of agricultural food as subordinate to meeting domestic needs and urged the Ministry of Agricultural Jihad to meet the needs of the market inside”.
The President stated that the country has adequate capacities to supply and produce healthy and accessible food for everyone, and called ensuring the safety of food in the chain of supply, production, distribution and consumption as another important point in ensuring food security and said that the Ministry of Health is responsible for developing and monitoring the statistics of food health indicators, and the Ministry of Agricultural Jihad should also determine the health indicators in the field of planting, growing, harvesting, processing, transportation and distribution of food and protein products and closely monitor their compliance.