Food safety is a crucial issue that affects the health and well-being of millions of people around the world. To ensure food safety it requires concerted efforts from all relevant stakeholders. To this end, SWR Ethiopia facilitated the establishment of a national Food Safety Technical Working Group (FSTWG). The FSTWG is a collaborative initiative that aims to overcome the fragmentation of efforts and mandates scattered across sectors and organizations, strengthening weak coordination, avoiding conflicts of interest, and addressing capacity limitations.
The FSTWG is composed of 11 experts’ representatives from key national food safety actors from Government ministries, authorities, and institutes as well as non-governmental organizations and the private sector. The group’s purpose is to supervise and lead the profiling exercise on food safety and provide a forum for all involved partners to communicate and work on pertinent food safety issues.
The FSTWG held its first meeting on April 11, 2023, at the SWR Ethiopia meeting hall. In his opening speech Dr. Dawit Alemu, SWR-Ethiopia country representative, highlighted the importance of strengthening the national food safety management system in Ethiopia. He added his expectation from the technical team to identify existing gaps, update standards, work on protocols and guidelines for improved food safety, and provide a forum for all involved partners to communicate.
During the first meeting, the group discussed and reached mutual understanding on the importance of strengthening the national food safety management system. The team made initial discussions and fully agreed on having a strong working team that could contribute strength national food safety system. The Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI) was selected as Chairperson, Ethiopia Agriculture Authority (EAA), vice-chairman, and Sichting Wageningen Research Ethiopia (SWRE) as secretary of the technical working group. Term of reference for the technical working group was drafted, reviewed and approved by the technical working group.
In the second round of the group meeting, the team identified key priority food safety areas in poultry, pulses, spices, and herbs. A presentation was made which discussed existing practices, challenges, and their impacts on human health and economic development in these sectors. Fanuel Fikremariam and Animaw Yehenew from Ethiopian agricultural authority, Animal Products and Quality Testing Centre and Plant Regulatory Directorate respectively presented the existing practices, challenges and their impacts in the respective sectors. The presentation laid the ground for a thorough discussion which resulted in identification of priority actions in addressing the food safety challenges in these sectors.
The presenters also heralded the preparation of national poultry development strategy which was prepared in 2022 in collaboration with ILRI and MoA as well as the development of food safety and quality control strategy for primary agricultural products by MoA. It was agreed that following sequencing and layering principle, the technical group to build up on ongoing initiatives to strength national food safety system. The FSTWG will exert its full capacity to enhance the national food safety system, and SWRE will play a facilitation role. Action points will be further developed to prepare the implementation strategy in collaboration with responsible organizations.
In conclusion, the establishment of the national food safety technical working group is a significant step towards addressing food safety issues in Ethiopia. The collaboration between various sectors and organizations is crucial in strengthening weak coordination and avoiding conflicts of interest. The FSTWG’s efforts will undoubtedly contribute to enhancing the national food safety system and promoting the health and well-being of Ethiopians.
RAISE-FS 