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Monalisa Chikwengo
GOVERNMENT has teamed up with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to undertake an assessment of the national food control system with a view to build capabilities, strengthen governance and improve strategic planning around food safety and plant health in line with current dictates of global trade requirements.
The project that is co-signed by the Government, falls within the sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) policy framework for Africa developed by the African Union (AU) to spur trade among AU member states.
FAO will introduce to Zimbabwe the FAO/World Health Organisation (WHO) food control system assessment tool, which was designed to assess the national food control system in a comprehensive manner by looking at the entire food chain, including production, distribution, the retail market and the consumers.
During the launch of the ongoing conference of the evaluation of Zimbabwe’s national food control system that is scheduled to run from July 3 to July 7, 2023, FAO representative-programmes assistant in Zimbabwe, Ms Constance Pepukai highlighted that FAO and WHO had been supporting the strengthening of food safety and food control across the globe for some time.
“In the recent past, there was need for development of a tool that could systematically assess a country’s food control system, its strengths and weakness, and areas for improvement. In 2019 the food control system assessment tool was developed to track a country’s food control system performance in a structured, transparent and measurable manner and it does so throughout the entire food chain, measuring and evaluating progress over time,” she said.
The EU funded project will contribute to strengthening the implementation of the agreement establishing the African continental free trade area.
Ministry of Health and Child Care at Environmental Health Services director, Mr Victor Nyamandi said the meeting came against the backdrop of Zimbabwe having undertaken this assessment in 2016.
“This follow up training and “reassessment of the food control system in Zimbabwe will help us to identify our system strength and weaknesses, which will be instrumental as we work towards the development of our national food safety strategic plan, to make our food safer, to improve our public health and for our food to be more competitive in the global food market,” he said.
Online Reporter