• DP Ruto calls for more funding to food safety programmes as food standards are considered barriers to trade.
• More than 300 delegates from 49 African Region Codex are attending five-day conference on international food standards.
Image: COURTESY
Deputy President William Ruto has called for increased funding to programmes geared towards enhancing food safety.
Apart from threatening thousands of lives every year, the DP noted that unsafe food hinders trade regionally and internationally.
He said it has become necessary to invest in food laboratories and enhance surveillance and monitoring through the adoption of new technologies and innovations.
He reiterated that the development of food safety and quality standards would secure consumer health and deepen fair practices in the food trade.
"Our focus must include strengthening the regulatory, scientific and technological capacities throughout the food value chain,” Ruto said on Monday.
Food standards are mandatory for international trade. They are usually considered barriers to trade due to technical and managerial difficulties faced in compliance.
The Deputy President, while noting that agriculture is a major employer, said there is a need to enhance access to global markets through improved safety standards.
He was speaking at a Nairobi hotel while opening the 23rd Codex Coordinating Committee for Africa (CCAfrica), a collection of internationally recognised standards, codes of practice, guidelines and other recommendations relating to foods, its production and safety.
CCAfrica has spearheaded the development of specific regional standards for particular products, which have in turn led to their enhanced competitiveness and improved market access.
More than 300 delegates from 49 African Region Codex members are attending the five-day conference as well as Codex member countries in other regions including the USA, Chile, the United Kingdom, France, and the European Union.
Also participating are representatives of the World Health Organization and Food and Agriculture Organization.
Kenya Bureau of Standards acting managing director Bernard Njiraini said Kenya is committed to adopting the highest food standards in order to trade easily regionally and overseas.
“Kebs has reconstituted the various National Technical Committees to broaden the scope of stakeholders involved in the development of standards as well as consultations on addressing the barriers to trade domestically and across borders,” he said.
Njiraini noted that apart from protecting consumer health and accessing external markets, food safety goes a long way in safeguarding the environment for future generations.
“The use of standards by any sector ensures efficient production of goods and services as well as reduction of waste translating into huge profits for the industries,” he added.
Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri said agriculture is a major source of income in Kenya and majority of African countries, hence the need to adhere to international food standards to access global markets.
WHO indicated that 91 million Africans fall ill every year because of eating contaminated food, with 170,000 losing their lives.
WHO representatives pledged to offer technical and scientific guidance to the conference when it will be drafting recommendations.
Ruto further called for the development of regional Codex standards for animal feed as a catalyst to dairy, fisheries and poultry production.
Edited by R.Wamochie