Safety is a basic requirement of food quality. Food contamination and poisoning can occur at any stage from farm to fork. Rapid urbanization and globalization of food manufacturing and trade increase the likelihood of incidents involving contaminated and adulterated food. Hundreds of people in our local area fall ill every year and many suffer death as a result of consuming unsafe food.

In this regard, Food Safety has been one of the flagship programs of DOST-MIMAROPA. This program aims to provide technical assistance to the SMEs in the region. Realizing the expanse of this task, DOST strategized to augment its manpower by developing Food Safety Team (FST) from the different provinces of the region.