The
Gambia Standards Bureau supported by the West Africa Quality System Programme
(WAGSP) has just concluded another national training workshop on food safety
aimed at achieving a proper implementation of the food safety management system
in the country.
The
training was geared towards building national capacity in the implementation of
quality, environmental, health and food safety management systems. It,
therefore, targeted core participants in the food production and distribution
chain.
There
is no gainsaying that such an undertaking is on the right track to achieving
public health safety, as millions of people fall ill every year and many die
around the world, as a result of eating unsafe food.
Therefore,
making sure that food does not cause harm to the consumer when it is prepared
and/or eaten according to its intended use, is actually ensuring public health
safety.
Food
safety is related to the presence of food-borne hazards in food at the point of
consumption, according to health experts.
Introduction
of hazards can occur at any stage of the food chain (from the producing to the
processing and manufacturing stage of food products) hence adequate control
throughout the chain is essential, they say.
“A
food safety hazard is a biological, chemical or physical agent in food or
condition of food with the potential to cause an adverse health effect,” says
Kenyan expert and trainer on food safety Beatrice Opiyo. “Such controls are
defined in the ISO 22000 standard.”
The
World Health Organisation estimates that foodborne and waterborne diarrhoeal
diseases together kill about 2.2 million people annually, 1.9 million of them
children.
Up
to one-third of the populations of developed countries are affected by food
borne illness each year, and that the problem is likely to be even “more
widespread in developing countries”.
Food
borne illness always has grave effects on national health and economy, as
whenever it strikes it takes serious
toll on the lives of a country’s population, as well as devastates its economy
by discouraging trade in the affected commodity (whether raw, processed or
manufactured), including visitors to that country.
The
Mad cow disease in the UK; the aflatoxin-related deaths, and the methanol laced
alcoholic spirits are just a few of the incidences of food hazards that have
had catastrophic effects on lives and economies of nations around the world.
So
we must commend the Standards Bureau and its supporting institutions such as
WAQSP for the essential training they have been conducting over time on food
safety.
“In
The Gambia, it is very important we look at how we should make our food safe. ”
Beatrice
Opiyo
