Food Safety
'Better Training for Safer Food' initiative gets off to Africa 05 May 2009
EU Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou recently launched at the headquarters of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, a new initiative "Better Training for Safer Food in Africa".
The initiative was launched during a high-level conference that took place in the Ethiopian capital city, in an effort to help developing countries improve their food safety systems for the benefit of their populations and economies.
Launched in 2005, the programme BTSF has provided training to both European and third country officials who are responsible for checking that EU rules related to food, feed, plant health, animal health and welfare are properly applied. Jointly with the African Union Commission (AUC), a specific programme targeted at Africa has been now set up, with the view to promoting compliance with international Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary (SPS) measures as key to bilateral trade, both within Africa and with the rest of the world, and to increasing the protection of citizens.
Indeed, under "BTSF-Africa" the EC and the AUC will jointly coordinate the implementation, from 2009 to 2010, of seven capacity building activities worth around €10 million.
The activities target the public and private sectors playing a role in the SPS systems at national, regional and continental levels.
The key objective is to support food safety mainly by the transfer of technical expertise and policy advice in areas of food safety and quality across Africa. The knowledge, expertise and skills transferred will help to produce and distribute agro-food products compatible with international SPS standards, contributing towards the reduction of the likelihood of food-borne diseases and the related health and socio-economic burden.
At micro level, the activities will help improve the use of agricultural inputs (fertilisers, pesticides, veterinary drugs, etc.) and good hygiene practices in the production and distribution chains, as well as animal/product management systems of control and certification, strengthening the competent authorities and producers’ associations.
At macro level, the activities will support the gradual integration and competitiveness of the agro-food sector, strengthening the vital role of agriculture as a whole towards rural development and food security, increasing market access for African producers with positive knock-on effects on growth and employment in Africa.
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