Integral Audit Plan 2023: implementation process and relevance study

Abstract

The Integral Monitoring Plan (PIF), established
by ANMAT Regulation 10873/2017, represents
Argentina’s first national monitoring plan for
packaged foods. Its importance lies in preventing
foodborne and chronic noncommunicable diseases,
which encompass a wide range of pathological
entities and entail a growing public health problem
worldwide. Within this framework, it becomes
critical to implement nationwide strategies to fight
and reduce their impact. In 2022, it was decided that
the PIF should be redesigned and relaunched on
the basis of collaborative work with the provinces
that signed up voluntarily to the Plan. This article
aims to describe the development process of
the federal programs included in the Plan for the
year 2023. The aspects to be considered when
implementing a federal strategy for monitoring foods
and manufacturing establishments were addressed,
taking into account their impact on public health and
the particular aspects of the various provinces in the
country, in order to put forward achievable objectives
at a national level. Based on the assessment, it is to
be mentioned that the PIF stands as an essential
strategy to agree on criteria and ways of working
among the provinces, within a federal framework.
Furthermore, all the programs that comprise it
address disease prevention topics that are relevant
to the protection of public health and have a legal
framework to support their objectives and activities.