Ethiopia Unveils National Food Safety Master Plan
Addis Ababa: Ethiopia launched today a five-year food safety master plan to draw attention and inspire action to prevent, detect and manage foodborne risks.
The master plan is designed in an inclusive process and validated by a cross-society of food safety stakeholders of the country.
The master plan intends to give a better understanding of the nation’s current food safety situation and provides guidance on future measures.
Speaking at the launching ceremony, State Minister of Health Dereje Dhuguma said the government of Ethiopia has been investing a lot in terms of improving food security, but it needs to improve food safety as ”there is no food security without food safety.
To this end, ‘I fully believe that the master plan will support us to identify the challenges and the gaps that we have to safety, and it will prioritize the actions that we are going to take over the coming five years,’ he stated.
He stressed the importance of coordination and collaboration between different stakeholders among co
untries in order to have a meaningful impact on the ground noting that food safety is a global agenda.
Head of Rural Development Division at African Union, Janet Edeme said over the past two years, the African Union through its initiative, the Partnership for Aflatoxin Control in Africa (PACA), has extended support to improve food safety to its member states in 12 countries, including Ethiopia.
The food safety initiative is country led and puts member states in the driver’s seat, she said adding the initiative is a hallmark of the African Union’s efforts.
To this end, the AU has been working with the Government of Ethiopia, who has embraced this process to address food safety in the country.Hence, the launch of Ethiopia’s National Food Safety Master Plan is not the end of the project, but actually the beginning of a process to transform the food safety systems of the country.
The food control assessment is accompanied by a strategic plan for implementation by all stakeholders and this will ensure that the
documents developed are not shelved but are actioned for positive change, she underlined.
Edeme further reiterated unweaving commitment of AU’s support to the government of Ethiopia in implementing the food safety master plan.
Ethiopian Food and Drug Authority Director General, Heran Gerba said on her part food safety and quality is a policy direction in Ethiopia.
It is also essential to build a system for ensuring food safety and quality using a comprehensive and integrated farm to table approach in which all value chain actors play vital roles.
Hence, this developed National Food Safety Master plan in parallel with the National Food and Nutrition Policy and strategy becomes a very good instrument for the implementation of the food safety system at the national level.
As the National Food Safety Master Plan document is developed in a well-coordinated and collaborative manner and its implementation also requires a well-organized collaboration and coordination, she underscored.
Ethiopian Agriculture Aut
hority Director General, Ambassador Diriba Kuma said this plan aims to draw attention and inspire action to prevent, detect and manage foodborne risk, contributing to food safety, economic prosperity and lead to sustainable development.
‘This is a great moment for all of us to garner synergy to implement the master plan which will be a great responsibility to transform the food safety status of our country,’ Diriba elaborated.
Moreover, he added that food safety is intimately linked to many other SDGs and African Agenda 2063 including economic growth, innovation, responsible consumption and production as well as climate change.
Over the past few years, attention has been given by policymakers to improve nutrition and in most cases food strategy was developed and implementation is going on at various levels to improve food safety at national and community levels.
Source: Ethiopian News Agency