RIYADH — The Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) CEO Dr. Hisham Bin Saad Aljadhey, has clarified that the Ministry of Health is following up on the collective health situation to determine whether the community needs to take a fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccines or not. Aljadhey's clarification came during an interview with the Saudi Channel, where he revealed the latest developments in the coronavirus vaccines, as well as the most prominent activities carried out by the authority to ensure the safety of food and drugs. The vaccines that have been used in the Kingdom have high levels of safety and efficacy, in addition to that its side effects were very low, Aljadhey said. He confirmed that there is no change in the formulations that were relied upon to manufacture the vaccines that were used at the beginning of giving vaccines in the pandemic. There is no new news confirming the need to give the COVID-19 vaccines for the age groups that are less than 5 years, Aljadhey said, noting that giving vaccines to this age group is determined by the health sector as needed. While regarding the activities of the authority to ensure the safety of food and drugs, Aljadhey clarified about the validity of the calories and the nutrition facts that are placed on food products, stressing that there are specific requirements for placing this information on food products with a clear and appropriate font size. Aljadhey confirmed that the authority is working on to provide applications that enable consumers to identify food product information by scanning the barcode placed on the product, while noting that calculating calories is an estimate, whether it is increased or decreased. He added that the safety of the food would not change by product price or any other effects. The Kingdom has developed a strategic plan for healthy food, and one of these aspects is the existence of the National Nutrition Committee (NNC), as it has developed, before and after the pandemic, great guides to understand the nutritional aspect of individuals in Saudi Arabia, in addition to giving specific recommendations in that. Aljadhey stressed that food is greatly affected by the way it is transported due to temperature, humidity and methods of distribution, thus the authority has set requirements for transportation methods such as Hajj periods, especially with high temperatures. He added that the authority worked on developing initiatives to ensure, control and monitor the means of transportation in Saudi Arabia, where the initiative was started earlier in the ways of transporting medicines and medical devices, and now it will start on the ways of transporting food in large warehouses that are affected by heat. Aljadhey said that the SFDA is also working on linking the control methods for transporting food electronically to be followed up remotely, and to be able to view information and monitor violations.
