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This is 25th and 26th of October and today we have the opportunity to talk precisely
with Mr. Alejo Migones, he is Regional Director of Industrial Applications of Biodemerio.
So, and he is going to talk precisely about what Biodemerio does.
It would be the first question that I would ask him because we are going to talk about
precisely inocuity and we are going to talk about microbiology.
So, I would like you to tell us a little bit about Biodemerio before anything else
and to tell us a little bit about what Biodemerio does.
Well, good afternoon, Silvia. Thank you very much.
First of all, I would like to thank the convocatoria for participating in this interview
and also for doing some part of the initiative that is in food security, inocuity
and finally in the contribution of the public sector that has its television channel.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. On the contrary, thank you very much for being here.
Well, Biodemerio is a French origin company, it is more than 45 years old,
it has a long history in science and in microbiology in particular.
It is a company that although its origins are French and its culture still keeps
some good practices and good customs of that scientific culture that this country organized.
Today it is a company completely globalized with more than 87% of its sales
in more than 150 countries and with 40 subsidiaries in the world
and a network of distributors in all the rest of the countries.
Exactly.
Biodemerio is a company that has several operating units.
The clinical unit that is dedicated to detecting diseases in human beings
and the unit in which I am director for Latin America of industrial applications
where from a public health point of view what we do is, from our place,
collaborate with the microbiology workers, with all the organizations,
which are food producers and regulatory entities and others,
to guarantee the inocuity of the products and in that way prevent diseases
and contribute to public health, which in the end of the day is the reason
that our company exists.
That's right.
In, you said, operations in Latin America.
Biodemerio has operations in all continents.
It is a representative for Latin America.
Exactly.
And we have five subsidiaries in Latin America for many years.
We have subsidiaries in Mexico, in Brazil, in Argentina, in Chile, in Colombia
and then we have distributors that have worked with us for many years in 21 countries
and we have a specialized unit, which is the international division of Biodemerio
that deals with all these distributors in each Latin American country
where we don't have subsidiaries.
Provide our solutions with the same standard of quality and service
that we have in our own files, with the same philosophy of quality and service.
Very well.
I would ask you now, what are the challenges in food inocuity?
In Latin America we know that habits, habits, etc. are a little different from the rest of the world.
But, because the challenges in inocuity, I think they are for everyone.
But, where are we? Where are we located?
What would be those challenges?
Well, it is a very good question and I appreciate it.
I think that the proper way to answer that question is to address the experts
and the Latin American societies and international ones,
who have set up and have defined with a lot of property what are those challenges.
Another part of the question is very good regarding habits and customs,
because in every region of the world, although there are challenges in common,
there are also specificities that are made from each country and from each region,
a different topic and a different approach.
So, I think that the way to talk about that is to start thinking in Latin America
and what is happening with our continent for at least a decade,
where, luckily, we are having an economic and social development,
which is also taking a change of habits, consumption, production,
and it is also happening that Latin America, due to its natural bonds,
is an exporter of very large products for the rest of the world.
And food insecurity has no borderline and we have to vote for public health,
not only in Latin America, but in the rest of the world,
being our products a possible vector of pollution.
So, that also makes the products that we manufacture in Latin America,
the food, also, at the same time, are manufactured with raw materials
that come from multiple places in the world.
So, globalization is also a phenomenon that makes...
We import products to transform them.
Absolutely.
And it is a phenomenon that makes control and, above all, traceability,
which is a topic, I would say, one of the international organizations that stands out a lot,
to be an outstanding topic.
There is a concept of which I think we all make eco,
which is what in English I mean from farm to fork,
which is from the farm to the dish.
That's right.
And there I think it is well represented the concept of traceability,
in the sense that the production of raw materials and animal production,
inclusive or vegetable,
even the manufactured product, or ready to be consumed at the table of our families in Latin America,
is very important, and throughout the production chain and commercialization,
that there is a traceability, a traceability,
of each of the components of that product,
of the manufacturing processes,
and to be able to have strict control of those products throughout the chain
until they arrive at our tables.
That's right, because it is nothing more...
Many producers do not understand what comes out of my factory or my farm,
but it is from before and even after.
It is all the chain of commercialization.
One of the concepts that most organizations comment on,
and I really think it is very positive,
is that inocuity is a challenge for everyone,
and where there are no individual efforts that can really give results,
that are an impact for everyone.
So, the approach of inocuity I think is multi-sectoral, it is multicultural,
and that is a bit of the approach that organizations like FIA and IFP are promoting.
Very simple reactions, like hand washing,
and that the population and the producers fulfill the rules of hygiene,
and hygiene habits,
that really have a very important impact,
even the issues that most involve companies like Biomerie,
which is having very strict and fast microbiological controls
to be able to react and prevent any contaminated product from reaching the tables.
Once it is contaminated, there is not much to do.
The issue is, I understand, what you have to do is prevention.
Exactly, as I said, the unit of industrial applications of the company
was precisely conceived as a unit that has a very strong impact in public health
due to the fact that what we do is prevent, but it is also interesting what you are saying,
because traceability is also, after that unfortunately,
and that happens, a outbreak occurs, because there is the concept of traceability,
and it is to be able to know what happened with that to prevent future outbreaks,
to take corrective actions within a chain.
Exactly, once that happens, and it is normally detected in the self-service, for example.
Exactly.
Then it is detected there, and back there, you know what it was,
where it was done, etc.,
what was the microbiological problem that it could have had,
and then it is detected and removed from the whole market.
There would be no traceability, there would be no possibility of removing it,
and the consumer would be exposed precisely to this.
And the most important thing about that is that traceability also allows producers
to take corrective actions that lead them to avoid possible contaminations in the future.
In the future, of course.
And this is a cycle of good practices that are improving food security.
Well, more and more, the United States with the new law requires much more of all these things,
that are fulfilled with traceability, that are fulfilled with certain requirements of good practices.
In the end, they are good practices, right?
Yes, in the United States it is a good reference to take as a model,
I think that many countries in Latin America do it,
as well as they take from Europe and the norms of the European community,
which are also trying to harmonize.
That's right.
And there are statistics that the CDC does in the United States,
an extremely serious activity, where it states that one of every six American citizens
has an annual food infection.
It's an important fact.
In Latin America it must be the biggest.
Well, I don't know about it, and I think it's also a...
But I mean that as a challenge, as a great challenge.
For my work, I'm lucky enough to be able to meet people who are scientific,
people who are in the Ministry of Health,
and others who had the pleasure of meeting in different Latin American countries.
And really, there is a concern, and thanks to God there is a lot of work in that sense,
to have better and greater statistics every time,
about what happens with the benefits of food contamination.
And now not only in small companies,
I mean in big companies,
not only big companies or big producers
need to do this, but also small producers, right?
No, of course.
In reality, a factor that harmonizes the role of each organization,
doesn't matter its size,
are the norms of food security and the good practices of manufacturing.
And more and more, both on the side of public health,
by the Ministry of Health and Agriculture,
as well as by the food codes,
and especially for those companies that manufacture products with microbiological risk, in this case.
The normative helps and collaborates a lot
so that there is an homogeneity in the responsibilities and actions
that each company has to have, no matter its size.
No matter its size, and no matter where it sells.
Well, it is still not totally synchronized, let's say.
Exactly.
There is also a phenomenon that I believe
that this phenomenon of harmonization and globalization is generating,
which is that also the companies that export their products,
also, at the same time, submit to local regulations,
also submit to the regulations of the country of destiny.
So that, in some way, is interesting in terms of public health,
because it doubles the amount of instructions or actions that they have to take
so that their product is accepted in destiny.
Of course, that is the advantage for many companies that export, for example,
that something that they earn for the local market
is precisely that they already work with techniques and specifications,
much more, perhaps, more demanding than we could see them.
But that is the benefit of the market itself,
because then the technology and all the methods they use
are precisely linked to carelessness.
Exactly, exactly.
And that also makes that, from our place,
the companies that we dedicate ourselves to science
and to generate technology so that all these practices,
in our case, of the laboratory, can be of quality control,
can be executed and everyone can achieve that kind of solutions.
It also makes us have to validate all our solutions to those regulations.
And then, in some way, from different places, we speak a common language.
Very well.
Well, just like that, not all companies, all small workers,
all small producers have a laboratory,
but for that we must have a laboratory
or we must send our samples to a laboratory.
Exactly.
I mean, it is not possible just because I say
that it does not have any biological problem and it is already unoccupied.
No, absolutely.
So this must be verified in a laboratory,
the companies that do not have it, I mean, desperately they would have to have it,
but if they do not have it, they can send it to other laboratories.
Exactly.
But what is, let's say, the role of this laboratory?
What does the producer say?
How to say your producer is not?
Well, let's say, the community of microbiological laboratories in the world
and in Latin America, no matter if they are laboratories
that are within a company, as many have them,
they are laboratories of services that work and receive samples
and they also collaborate from the results,
sometimes doing consultations for those companies
in good manufacturing practices or to prevent contaminations.
No matter the origin of those laboratories,
I think the role is fundamental,
that is, there is an application of the vigent regulations
that vary from country to country, but that, luckily, more and more tend to harmonize.
Okay.
And, at the point of view of microbiological,
there is a general agreement about which are the microorganisms
that you have to look for in each type of food
or what concentrations of some microorganisms that can be present in certain quantities.
The microorganisms can be pathogenic or not,
and some foods can have a certain amount of microorganisms.
Like Icoli, like Salmonella.
It depends on what type.
Exactly.
And also measure in what concentrations are present in those microorganisms.
Are they tolerable or not?
And in the microbiological laboratory,
if we join the concepts that we were talking about,
traceability, celerity to make decisions
and avoid that a product reaches the market
and generates a sprout due to a contamination,
it has a fundamental role because, in some way,
it is the expert entity that, according to the normative,
to its knowledge and scientific understanding and to the technology that it uses,
is capable of giving security to the producer,
to the productive process that that food, that raw material,
is inocuous and can be delivered to the next stage of the chain
or to the retail chain, whatever it is.
The message that everyone should have,
is the service of a microbiological laboratory,
both internally and externally.
Of course.
To have information.
It is a common practice.
It is a common practice, but that every time more,
and it is also something very interesting to see in Latin America,
every time more, there are companies that even invest a lot
in developing their quality management systems,
invest in technology so that more and more
can have quick and reliable results
to be able to make decisions with confidence.
Perfect, perfect.
Well, I would ask you, finally,
how do you, because you can support the industry in this,
how do you help it to add value
and finally, our televisions or the internet on the portal,
will be asked what includes a microbiological laboratory.
Because maybe a lot of people have not seen it.
So maybe, I would like to ask you this quickly,
precisely what does Biomerio do to add value in this sense,
because it is to add value to traceability,
security and quality of the food.
Absolutely.
So how do they do it?
What value do they add?
How do we do it?
How do we do it?
We do a lot of things.
That's right.
It is also interesting to go back to what we talked about,
that food security and inequality are not just
a sum of individual forces, that is to say,
and we also talked about this thing of multi-sectoriality.
And I think there are, from the producers, consumers,
regulatory entities, and from our place,
in the organizations that we dedicate ourselves to science
and to developing technology, each of us,
and in common with others, we develop, in our case,
technologies that are equipment,
that we are going to show them,
reactive and also knowledge,
because many times it is necessary,
in addition to the technologies and the reactive,
to really train, to train people in the good practices
in which they know how to take advantage of these technologies
to have total security in what they do.
And Biomeria, since more than 45 years ago,
what it does is expose all its efforts and all its resources
after those developments that they take to the laboratories
of microbiology and the organizations in general,
to have their reach in the most modern and effective technologies
to give, what we talked about before,
quick and reliable results to make decisions
and to prevent any kind of product from reaching the consumer table
in bad conditions.
Perfect.
