Following incidents of low standards of agriculture products within the East African Community (EAC), East African countries met in Entebbe on Friday 1st September in a high-level regional meeting for policy and decision makers on food safety and codex intending to strengthen high agricultural standards.
Food Safety Infrastructure in the EAC is that not all the Partner States have established functional and modern food safety systems that are important to respond to current and emerging food safety issues and the five main building blocks or elements for national food safety control systems that were pinned out include; Food Legislation (Laws, Regulations and Standards), Food Control Management, Food Inspectorate Services, Food Laboratory Services, and Food Information, Education, Communication and Training.
During the meeting, Daniel Richard Makayi Nangalama, the Ag. Executive Director Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) said that food safety is generally everyone’s business from farm to plate, meaning that all people have a role to play in making food safe whether a farmer, farm supplier, food processor, transporter, marketer, consumer or regulator, food safety is a concern.
He added that unsafe food kills an estimated 420,000 people every year, however, it is worth comforting to note that these deaths are entirely preventable by safe food which allows for a suitable intake of nutrients and contributes to a healthy life.
Nangalama also remarked that UNBS as the Codex Contact Point for Uganda has established and maintained functional structures to ensure the effective operation of Codex activities at the
national level such as the National Codex Committee (with representation from different Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government as well as CSO, Consumer Organizations and Academia) whose role includes improving the effectiveness of Uganda’s participation in Codex work as a mechanism to promote the development and implementation of food standards and advise the government on matters of food safety.
“As of June 2023, up to 1,100 Uganda Standards had been developed in the area of Food and Agriculture including 140 which are directly adopted from Codex. In addition, reference is made to the Codex online database for Additives and Pesticides to support testing of Maximum Residue Limits in different commodities before placement on the market. The availability of food standards has enabled Uganda to develop its Quality infrastructure, which has subsequently helped to penetrate key markets in the various food sectors,” he highlighted.
He also revealed that Uganda’s exports of coffee, tea, fish, milk, fats and oils, cereals and pulses, fresh fruits and vegetables and related products have significantly increased over the last 20 years as a result of the implementation and application of relevant Codex and National Food Safety and Quality standards.
While at the same engagement, the Minister for Health Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng remarked that during epidemics there were challenges with trade issues where the ministries of health are involved at any one time to ensure that there is safety even at the tracks when they move forward and also disagreements regarding trade with various countries like recently when South Sudan had issues regarding Uganda’s maizes that was exported to them claiming that it had aflatoxin as well as other scenarios when other products had been rejected by other countries.
“So we are here to address such issues before they happen and harmonise our ideas by the technical people to ensure a smooth flow of services and that’s why there will be the adoption of four policy papers on food safety and codex, food contaminants, food born diseases, and on food additives resulting into a joint communique that is agreed to by all countries in the East African Community,” she added.
Alex Bambona the Food and Nutrition Security Assistant Commissioner at the Ministry of Agriculture said that within the country there may be some gaps which is why the Ministry of Agriculture is strengthening its capacity to ensure an increase in inspection facilities and building regional labs across the country so that food is inspected throughout the country.
“Some regional labs have been put in place and more are in plans so that we make food safety an issue everywhere not only for exports but also the one that is consumed internally,” he added.
The Minister of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives Francis Mwebesa highlighted that his ministry plays a major role in food systems and food distribution; by connecting regions with limited agricultural potential and large populations to regions with comparative advantages in agriculture. The Ministry plays a critical role in the promotion of regional and international trade through, among others, effective participation in the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) including EAC, COMESA, African Continental Free Trade Area, and WTO and AGOA.
“The Ministry is committed to investments in quality and standards, encompassing the development of the standards infrastructure, including the development of standards, construction and equipment of testing laboratories, decentralization of services and enhancement of compliance mechanisms to ensure accessibility and availability of safe and nutritious food. A testing laboratory in Gulu City in the Northern Region was commissioned in 2022. As of February 2022, Uganda had developed 4,548 national standards among which 1098 standards are in the area of food and agriculture of which 140 are directly adopted from Codex,” he said.
The East African Community (EAC) Principal Standards Officer Stella Apolot expressed the concern that unsafe food continues to create a vicious cycle of diseases and malnutrition, impacting negatively on food trade despite existing regulatory frameworks in terms of food laws regulations and standards.
She also recognized participation from all the partner states regulatory authorities, private sector, value chain actors and development partners emphasizing a need for close collaboration to tap available opportunities for food trade in the realization of safe food trade and how standards and SPS measures can be leveraged.
According to the WHO, 91 million Africans fall sick each year due to foodborne diseases and 137,000 of them die of the same cause, representing one-third of the global death toll for foodborne diseases. The most frequent cause of foodborne illness was diarrhoeal disease agents, particularly norovirus, Campylobacter spp and non-typhoidal Salmonella enterica as well as Salmonella Typhi, Taenia solium, hepatitis A virus, and aflatoxin.
Food safety is imperative for the health and well-being of communities. Unsafe food can impact trade and compromise the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. The global burden of foodborne diseases is comparable to that of major illnesses, malaria, and tuberculosis?
From an economic point of view, foodborne diseases contribute to decreased worker productivity, disability and early death thus lowering incomes. An economic impact study done by the World Bank (WB) in 2019 estimated that, annually, unsafe foods cost low- and middle-income economies mainly in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, about $110 billion in lost productivity and medical expenses alone.
In September 2021, during the UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) it was a real awakening to the world to the fact that we all must work together to transform the way the world produces, consumes and thinks about food. The summit was part of the Decade of Action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. Among the 5 action tracks, Food Safety is particularly important and key in Track 1 (Ensure Access to Safe and Nutritious Food for All), Track 2 (Shift to Sustainable Consumption Patterns) and Track 3 (Boost Nature-Positive Production at Sufficient Scales).
About The Author
