The alert system is meant to expedite exchange of information and subsequent preventive or remedial action in regard to food safety emergencies. Early alerts help in protecting the consumers from unsafe foods as these will facilitate quick decisions in all GCC countries in regard to the ban or control of food items deemed unsafe.

Khalid Al Marzouqi, head of the Department of Risk Analysis at ADFCA took the audience through the details of the alert system at the workshop. "The system is an effective and fast means to exchange information across the food control authorities in the region. This helps the countries involved to join hands in dealing with potential emergencies. This provides a window of time in order to take necessary action such as ban, recall or rejection of food products seen as risky to human health," he explained during the workshop.

Al Marzouqi said the fact the system was an online one made it all the more effective as it helps save precious time. "Exchange of information, notification and warnings between the main and subsidiary contact points in the GCC countries is vitally important, in addition to building a database of such information," he added.