Food Safety as a Strategic Pillar for Lebanon’s Agri-Food Future

Executive Summary

Lebanon’s agri-food sector is at a pivotal moment. As global food safety regulations tighten, Lebanon must transform food safety into a strategic driver of public health, export growth, and international trust. Product rejections and local foodborne incidents highlight urgent system gaps. Meanwhile, tourism revival and the global expansion of Lebanese cuisine require a reliable, traceable, and safe supply chain. This paper presents key actions to position food safety at the core of Lebanon’s competitiveness.

The World Food Safety Day: Insights on the Lebanese Context

This World Food Safety Day, under the theme promoted by WHO and FAO, we reaffirm the essential role of science in food safety governance. Scientific evidence is the foundation of effective risk assessment, policy formulation, and hazard control. In Lebanon, where food safety remains under-resourced and fragmented, embedding science in regulation, monitoring, and communication is critical to protect consumers and strengthen international market access.

Equally important is the development of a national ecosystem for research and innovation in food safety. Lebanon lacks adequate investment in food safety-related R&D, knowledge transfer, and technological adaptation. Scientific institutions, universities, and food laboratories must play a central role in generating locally relevant research, piloting innovations in hazard detection and prevention, and supporting regulatory updates. Technology transfer mechanisms, such as public-private demonstration programs, startup accelerators, and applied research platforms, must be scaled to ensure new knowledge is translated into practice. Strengthening the science-policy-industry interface is crucial for sustainable change.

Data from the European Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF), reports a total of 56 alerts between 2020 and 2025 (until the date of publishing this communication) linked to Lebanese exports to the European Union only, especially for microbial contamination in herbs and vegetables, pesticide residues in fruits, and labeling or traceability failures. These rejections not only damage the credibility of individual exporters but erode the image of the entire Lebanese food brand. Each of these alerts offers a real-time case study to be tackled by R&D projects: from rapid pathogen detection tools and safer post-harvest practices to clean labeling technologies and digital traceability platforms. These challenges must be framed as innovation opportunities within the national research agenda. Targeted efforts could include the development of natural antimicrobial washes, post-harvest sanitation systems, affordable rapid testing tools for SMEs, AI-driven pesticide forecasting, and smart traceability platforms using QR codes or blockchain. Addressing these challenges through locally adapted, research-driven solutions will not only reduce export rejections but also enhance product quality and reinforce Lebanon’s global food reputation.

Key Challenges

Despite growing efforts toward reform, Lebanon’s food safety system faces critical challenges across all stakeholder levels. At the governance level, the Lebanese Food Safety Commission remains inactive despite the legal mandate of Law 35/2015, and the absence of a centralized digital platform results in fragmented data on alerts, inspections, and international rejections. Public laboratories suffer from outdated infrastructure and lack ISO 17025 accreditation, limiting the reliability of testing and enforcement. Among the private sector, especially SMEs, there is low adoption of internationally recognized food safety systems such as HACCP and ISO 22000, and traceability remains weak due to limited use of digital tracking or recall procedures. From a scientific and innovation standpoint, Lebanon lacks sufficient investment in food safety R&D, and collaboration between academia and industry remains minimal, delaying the transfer of technology and best practices. At the consumer level, awareness of food safety risks is low, and effective complaint or alert systems are largely absent. Additionally, climate-related shocks and infrastructure weaknesses further increase the risk of food contamination. These interlinked challenges must be addressed through coordinated, science-based action to build a resilient and credible food safety ecosystem that supports both domestic health and international market access.

SWOT Analysis: Lebanon’s National Food Safety System

Strategic Actions

To build a resilient, science-based food safety system, Lebanon must implement coordinated actions across all stakeholder levels.

At the governance level, activating the LFSC and fully enforcing Law 35/2015 is essential to unify oversight and develop a national food safety plan. Government institutions must also upgrade and accredit public laboratories with modern equipment and data-sharing protocols, while launching a centralized Food Safety Intelligence Dashboard to consolidate alerts and inspection results.

For the private sector, the implementation of digital traceability systems across exporters and large operators is critical, as is supporting SMEs and food service providers through targeted training, incentives, and model certification programs. In parallel, dedicated certification of safe supply chains will help elevate Lebanese brands and franchises on the global stage.

Academia and innovation stakeholders should collaborate to establish a Food Safety Innovation Hub that promotes research, clean-label technologies, and tech adoption.

Public–private partnerships must be mobilized to fund infrastructure for traceability, laboratory upgrades, and mobile inspection units. On the consumer side, awareness campaigns, hotlines, and youth engagement are key to building public trust and demand for safe food. This paper also calls for leveraging Lebanon’s diaspora to support product validation and market access, while integrating climate resilience into food safety protocols and packaging systems to prepare for future shocks. These actions together form a roadmap toward a safer, more competitive, and export-ready Lebanese agri-food sector.

Phased Implementation

The food safety reform roadmap should follow a phased approach. First, institutional foundations must be established by reactivating the Lebanese Food Safety Commission, upgrading public laboratories, piloting a national food safety dashboard, and initiating traceability with key exporters. Next, efforts should focus on scaling up: supporting SMEs and food service operators in adopting HACCP and digital tools, launching voluntary certification schemes, fostering research–industry collaboration, and engaging the diaspora for product validation and global trust-building. Finally, the system must be consolidated through nationwide traceability enforcement, expanded lab coverage, and the full rollout of a Food Safety Innovation Hub to drive clean-label innovation, rapid testing, and climate-resilient solutions, anchored by a national food safety seal and embedded into emergency and export strategies. This phased reform aligns with global commitments under Codex Alimentarius, the WTO’s Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement, and the Sustainable Development Goals, paving the way for strong partnerships with global stakeholders.

Conclusion

Food safety is not a technical issue, it is central to Lebanon’s economic recovery, brand credibility, and public health. Science must guide every level of the system, from labs to laws, from inspections to education. Strengthening Lebanon’s research, innovation, and technology transfer capabilities is essential to create a resilient, modern food safety framework that serves both local and international markets.

The visual were created by the World Health Organization for World Food Safety Day 2025.