Project on Strengthening Food Safety Systems in West Africa
This project aims to strengthen food safety systems by growing food safety capacity and harmonization of measures across countries and regions. The project will engage the Africa Union, the RECs, member states and agribusiness to improve understanding of and application of science-based sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standards among food safety actors in the region.
Project Collaborators: Oregon State University, University of Missouri and UMAP-Ghana
This project will initially focus its efforts in 2022 in West Africa to support national level efforts to develop food safety standards within target industries.
Introduction
The USDA FAS seeks to provide technical assistance in harmonization of food safety requirements in West Africa to support the availability of safe food to the population, and regional and international trade. It has formed a project with The University of Missouri as the implementing partner and Oregon State University as lead technical trainers.
The project activities will target the promotion of regulatory harmonization, support industry to meet these requirements, and develop academic resources to meet current and future needs for technical staff and research. Food safety measures have risen in prominence to address critical public health concerns. However, measures need to be based in science and broadly coordinated within a sound framework to help facilitate agricultural trade.
Target countries and commodities
Senegal and Nigeria are the two countries selected for initial action in 2022. More specifically, the project seeks to support the higher-value ground nut sector (i.e., non-oil application) in Senegal, and tilapia aquaculture in Nigeria. The project aims to deploy technical assistance to support the progress of ongoing and locally driven efforts.
It will include national and regional technical training, activities to strengthen scientific collaboration, and technical assistance to level-up national standards to meet international standards.
AFSI 