African summit focuses on food safety
African summit focuses on food safety
Food-borne diseases are a serious
threat to people in Africa, especially Africans already weakened from
devastating conditions such as malaria and HIV/AIDS, two UN agencies warned this
week at the first-ever Regional Food Safety Conference for Africa.Some 200 food
safety officials and experts from 50 countries are attending a four-day
conference held under the auspices of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO).The meeting of food experts is
expected to agree on ways and means to strengthen existing food safety systems
to ensure safer food for better health and agricultural trade
opportunities. “Many African countries do not have adequate food security,
resulting in a situation where at least 60 percent of the food supply is
imported to supplement local production,” according to a report prepared for the
Food Safety Conference. Because there is not effective food safety regime in
place in most countries of the region, the safety of imported food cannot always
be assured, adding to the risk of widespread food contamination. Improved food
safety would help to reduce the 2000 deaths estimated to occur every day in
Africa from food and waterborne diseases.Addressing the globalisation of
agricultural trade and the increasing threat of ill-health from contaminated
food, the report calls on “governments, the private sector, consumers and others
to work in a concerted manner in this shared responsibility of assuring food
safety from farm to fork.”