Uganda shows support for World Food Safety Day at grassroots level

Kampala, Uganda 7 June 2018

Speaking at the national stakeholders meeting for players in the meat value chain, at the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS), as part of the celebrations to mark support for a World Food Safety Day, former chairperson of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, Ms Awilo Ochieng Pernet, commended UNBS for its work in ensuring compliance to food safety standards and called on sector players to ensure compliance to standards.

“Food safety must be on the political agenda because unsafe food results in negative, social, economic & development consequences. It shouldn’t be a discussion in air conditioned rooms but be discussed at grassroots to decision and policy makers,” she said.

UNBS reports that recently, the meat industry in Uganda has faced a number of challenges including the alleged use of agrochemicals to preserve meat and insecticides to chase away flies as well as a listeria outbreak linked to pre-packaged and ready-to-eat meat products imported from South Africa.

Deputy executive director in charge of Compliance at UNBS, John Paul Musimami, said: “the meat industry is still faced with poor infrastructure in addition to poor practices that do not conform to standards.”

Musimami called on stakeholders in the meat value chain to improve their operations to safeguard the population from risks associated with consumption of unsafe meat and meat products. He added that working together with sector players UNBS has developed standards for different meat products and codes of practices to guide operations at various stages of the meat value chain.

“In the development of standards, UNBS always strives to engage all relevant stakeholders to ensure that the resultant standards are applicable to the nation,” he said.

About UNBS

The Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) is a statutory body responsible for developing and promoting standards and quality of products and services to facilitate fair trade, promote local industries and protect consumers. UNBS is the Codex Contact Point for Uganda.

About World Food Safety Day

At the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly, Costa Rica will present a draft resolution calling for a World Food Safety Day to be celebrated annually on June 7th.

All Codex Members and Observers are invited to support this initiative.

Additional reporting: UNBS