The CCAFRICA Region - Regional Coordinator Uganda
The ‘Coordinating Committee for Africa’ was established by the Codex Alimentarius Commission in 1972 with a mandate to “exercise general coordination in the preparation of standards relating to the region of Africa”. The committee held its first meeting at FAO in 1974, with 19 countries in attendance.
As the new regional coordinator begins their term, the Agreement of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which came into effect in May 2020, has reinforced the need for an efficient and effective system for managing sanitary and phytosanitary measures, in particular food safety, across the continent as its borders open for trade.
The regional coordinator is based in the Uganda National Bureau of Standards, a statutory body under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Co-operatives which oversees, as part of its mandate, the promotion and use of standards.
As regional coordinator, Uganda intends to engage closely with countries via surveys, webinars and workshops to identify needs and emerging issues, create awareness of priority food safety issues and of Codex standards. A pilot study will also explore the food safety situation in broader terms across the region. By strengthening engagement with regional bodies such as the African Union, the African Organisation for Standardisation and the African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat, Uganda also aims to enhance advocacy work in the region.
CCAFRICA Coordinator
All information on Codex is public and free.
For regional enquiries contact:
CCAFRICA Secretariat
Uganda National Bureau of Standards Plot 2 - 12, Bypass Link, Industrial
& Business park, Kyaliwajala road,
P.O Box 6329 Kampala, Uganda
Tel: +256 (041) 7333250 / 0417333251 / 0417333252
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.unbs.go.ug
Safer Food, Better Health: Making Food Safety Ambassadors
For World Food Safety Day, the Food Safety Ambassadors’ Network (FOSAN) organized the 8th Regional Food Science and Technology Summit at the Nigerian Institute of Food Science and Technology, the University of Ibadan. FOSAN coordinator, Professor Folake O. Henshaw was the event speaker.
The audience was made up of stakeholders in the food and agricultural industry, food scientists, food manufacturers and other stakeholders in the food chain. Henshaw gave some background to how World Food Safety Day was established by the United Nations. This the 4th anniversary of World Food Safety Day and, according to Henshaw, the impact of the campaigns on making food safer from farm to fork, is beginning to spread as more groups are coming on board to raise awareness by organizing different activities to mark the day.
This upbeat tempo needs to be sustained, she said. The call was to inspire more people to team up for food safety by becoming a food safety ambassador. The mission of the Food Safety Ambassadors Network is the dissemination of science-based food safety knowledge to stakeholders in order to achieve enhanced awareness and increased adoption of food safety practices from farm to fork.
Food safety education should be in formats and modes that are suited to targeted sectors of the food chain. The highlight of the session was the distribution of posters of WHO’s 5 Keys to Safer Foods, translated into Yoruba, one of the local languages in Nigeria. This will act as a tool to educate the informal food sector of the food chain and bridge the knowledge gap, thereby enhancing safer food handling practices.
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