Agnes Kirabo, the Executive Director at Food Rights Alliance
Civil Society Organisations working on human rights and food safety have urged consumers, food processors, government and other stakeholders to ensure there is compliance to the food safety standards aimed at minimizing consumption of contaminated food.
As part of the commemoration of the world food day that happens on the 7th June every year, CSOs called upon all stakeholders as a shared responsibility to put food safety on the spot light to help detect, prevent and manage food borne risks which they say have consequences on nutrition security, economic prosperity, consumer rights among others.
During a joint press conference held on 7th June 2020, at Food Rights Alliance (FRA), Agnes Kirabo ,the Executive Director at Food Rights Alliance urged everyone to refrain from consuming contaminated food which she said poses safety risks, thus affecting the millions of lives of people in Uganda. The theme of the World Food Day 2020 is “World Food Safety: Everyone’s Business”.
Kirabo said that in order to inculcate the culture of quality food, there is need to massively sensitize all actors in the food value chain from the farm to the mouth including farmers, processors and consumers, among others coupled with significant investment in food related technologies.
“All actors from Farmers, processors, consumers, and other government agencies need to know that to sell food for human and animal consumption; we must have good quality products. Massive education should be undertaken at all levels including household level to inculcate a food quality culture to build Ugandans into a movement of quality culture of consumers able of demanding quality from actors,” she explained.
Jane Seruwagi Nalunga, the Country Director at Southern and Eastern Trade Information and Negotiation Institute (SEATINI) said that if Uganda is to trade optimally in local and foreign markets, the challenge of standards must be addressed through enforcing compliance on food safety by bodies like Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) which she recommends should be well equipped with finance and human resources.
She revealed that during a market study carried out in 5 markets around Kampala, it was discovered that 89% of products were contaminated and that in the last 4 years, Uganda experienced trade bans due to standards compliance.
In a statement on Word Food Day, Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) said that among 3, 621 of the general and product specific standards developed as at 31st March 2019, 1,317 are compulsory standards designed to protect the health and safety of consumers.
Some of the notable general food safety standards includes; US 45: 2019, US 28:2002, US CAC/RCP 39:1993 among others.
“As we celebrate the World Food Safety Day, we would like to call upon consumers, manufacturers, traders and other government agencies to use standards to improve food safety and combat outbreak of food borne diseases in Uganda and the rest of the world,” UNBS said in a statement.
By Drake Nyamugabwa
