#Article (Archive)

Food safety first

Nov 3, 2010, 12:38 PM

We have argued incessantly on this page that agriculture is the backbone of an economy; all else are just superstructures. The base for industrial and technological progress is agriculture.

The great nations of the world have their foundations in agriculture. The United States of America is substantially agricultural; the United Kingdom also thrives on agriculture.

We have over the years laid emphasis on the fact that people should make investment in agriculture a priority.

We made this emphasis because we know that a nation which cannot feed her citizens is doomed. How can a hungry emaciated citizenry be roused to national duty? A hungry man is an angry man!

Agriculture ensures food self-sufficiency, and keeps a nation going.

However, the availability of sufficient food should not only stop there, but the food available must be safe for human consumption.

Food can be available, but its safety is imperative.

It is against this background that we share the sentiments expressed recently by Omar Bun Njie, Director of the Food Standard Quality and Hygiene Enforcement Directorate at the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, who said that food sellers should ensure that they sell good food to the public.

This is perfectly true, in the sense that food is one of the few commodities that people consume.

We should ensure that the food we produce is up to standard so as to ensure that it does not hurt those consuming it.

It is also the responsibility of the Food Standard, Quality and Hygiene Enforcement Directorate at the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare to ensure that the food consumed in the country is of quality and standard before it enters the country.

This, however, is not an easy task, and thus needs the supportive efforts of all and sundry