Africa on Thursday launched its first food safety plan, outlining a series of steps over the next five years to provide healthier meals on the worlds poorest continent and boost agricultural exports, reports the World Bank press review Friday.
Representatives from 49 countries agreed on a five-year action plan for food safety at a four-day conference organized by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
The nine-point plan covers a wide range of food safety aspects “from regulations and basic food legislation all the way to consumer information and all these elements must be tackled,” added Ezzedine Boutrif, the FAOs Chief of Food Quality and Standards Service.
The plan paves the way for the creation of a pan-African coordinating body that will meet regularly to find ways of improving food quality. The plan also urges countries to join in Codex, a commission set up by the WHO and FAO which sets out guidelines for food safety and quality.
Countries expressed concern about the “dumping” of unsafe food on Africa and the plan made provision for a rapid alert system to help detect bad food being brought in from outside the continent.
Deaths from food illnesses in Africa are close to rivaling those from malaria, the two agencies said. Poor safety controls also cause huge economic losses for the continent. The failure to meet new food standards issued by the European Union in 2001 resulted in a 64 percent drop in exports from Africa of cereals, dried fruits and nuts, representing a loss of 670 million US dollar.
Boutrif said implementation of the proposed strategic plan on food safety would improve food production systems throughout Africa, making it possible for African farmers to market their food and agricultural products across the continent and throughout the global marketplace.
– Greater opportunities for African farmers will help reduce rural poverty and raise incomes and living standards by creating jobs in agriculture-related enterprises, Boutrif said.
Several specific areas where food safety capacity building is needed were outlined, including in the education of all stakeholders in the food chain, strengthening consumer associations, laboratories and sharing successful experiences in food safety.
The conference highlighted the importance of strengthening all aspects of national food control systems, including enforcement of legislation as well as the need for increased funding. It underlined the importance of basing capacity building on a careful analysis and prioritization of actual needs and linking them to available resources.
The conference also considered the implementation of an integrated bio-security approach to food safety, animal and plant health in their country, as well as the tools under development by FAO to implement such an approach.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
