Gilbert Ekugbe
Stakeholders in the nation’s agricultural sector, policy makers and consumers have expressed concerns over food safety issues and its impact on consumer health, noting that lack of food safety is enormously due to climate change and increasing chemical use in agriculture, particularly in developing countries.
According to them, this trend is raising concern among consumers, producers, and policymakers, explaining that some major causes of food safety issues are aflatoxins and informal market hazards.
Aflatoxins are poisonous carcinogens that affect much of the global food supply which affects both human and animal health, while informal market hazards involve food safety challenges because they lack refrigeration units, making food unsafe for consumption.
To address food safety concerns, several organizations worldwide are collaborating with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA)–CGIAR to execute the Food Safety for Africa (FS4Africa), a project established to address global food safety challenges.
The FS4Africa Project Lead Titilayo Falade, at a two-day meeting at IITA’s headquarters in Ibadan, Nigeria, explained that the major causes of informal market hazards are coliform contamination, food fraud, heavy metals, mycotoxins, and pesticide residues.
“FS4Africa would apply newly developed innovative approaches, convergence strategies, and stable partnerships to promote food safety across the globe,” she said.
According to her, the meeting serves as an avenue to provide a deep understanding of all the Work Packages (WPs) and their interconnection, focusing on use cases. It also established collaboration modalities for technical and administrative aspects of FS4Africa.
The FS4 Africa project, which is funded by the European Union (EU)-funded project would focus on ensuring food safety by addressing contamination from informal markets and food hazards. IITA is implementing the project in partnership with several organizations, including Wageningen University and Research (WUR), Innovation Technology Cluster (ITC), Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Ghana (CSIR-GH), Food Scale Hub Greece Association for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (FSH), and Ubuntoo. Other partners include Food Systems Transformation Solutions (FSTS), the University of Pretoria (UP), Knowledge Economy Foundation for Society Development (KEF), African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD), Aglobe Development Center (ADC), Bayer, and McGill University.
With the support from partners, FS4Africa will also enhance environmental sustainability, food security, and health.
FS4Africa Project Ethical Adviser Ilja Pavone said the project would be based on the ‘One Health Approach,’ recognizing co-existence and interdependence among people, animals, plants, and their environment. He added, “Embracing the One Health Approach would improve consumer well-being, with animal inclusiveness and ecosystem resilience against food safety challenges globally.”