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African Union moves to establish a region-wide food safety network

06 January 2013

According to press reports, the African Union (AU) is to establish ‘a food safety authority as well as a Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF)’, to prevent the spread of food-borne diseases and facilitate trade in foodstuffs. The aim is to use the EU model, tailored to African realities. At the launch of the initiative, speakers noted the ‘huge losses in international trade’ incurred by African producers as a result of food safety issues, with products being refused entry or simply destroyed. Getting to grips with food safety issues, according to Rwandan Minister of Trade and Industry François Kanimba, ‘will not only reduce food losses and increase food availability in the continent, but also promote exports’.

To understand the scale of the challenge ahead for this AU initiative, it is helpful to understand what the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is, and how it works. The EFSA is an independent European agency funded by the EU budget, and governed by an independent management board. It has an executive director who supervises the work of scientific panels and directorates. The scientific panels are composed of highly qualified experts whose work is supported by EFSA staff from three scientific directorates. Its activities focus on risk assessment and risk communication. The EFSA website notes that ‘a large part of EFSA’s work is undertaken in response to specific requests for scientific advice,’ although it can also initiate its own investigations and assessments.

EFSA also assists in the development of common region-wide standards. Significantly, ‘EFSA is not involved in these management processes, but its independent advice gives them a solid scientific foundation.’ Critical to the work of the EFSA is close collaboration with partners throughout Europe, in particular national food safety authorities and food-safety-related institutions. EFSA also meets with and takes on board the views and concerns of ‘civil society stakeholders such as consumer groups, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and market operators such as farmers, food manufacturers, distributors or processors and science professionals’.

Similarly, the European Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF), according to an EC memorandum on its role and achievements published in July 2012, is ‘primarily a tool to exchange information between competent authorities on consignments of food and feed in cases where a risk to human health has been identified and measures have been taken’. According to the memorandum, the ‘rapid exchange of information allows all Member States, in real time, to check whether they are also affected and if urgent action is needed’. The RASFF system provides ‘a common template to provide all relevant and useful information’ relevant to the safety of food and feed.

Significantly, 94% of the work of the RASFF in 2011 was related to non-compliance with EU food legislation, and only 6% related to serious risks to health. Over 55% of the work was related to follow-up investigations, suggesting that the RASFF system is increasingly providing the relevant authorities with the information needed ‘to withdraw unsafe products from the market’. 

Editorial comment

The EFSA operates in support of national and regional policy-making processes and policy implementation. It is not a body that initiates policy or that is responsible for the management of policy. Its role is to provide independent advice, not to lead and direct policy-making processes, which remain the responsibility of national and regional institutions. This is an important distinction to bear in mind as the African Union seeks to develop the mandate, institutional structure and work programme of a pan-African food safety authority.

The European RASFF is based on the effective functioning of national food safety authorities (‘competent authorities’). Where national authorities are not in place or do not function properly, then the information system designed to prevent the spread of food-borne diseases and contamination into the food and feed supply chain can break down. Currently, there is no all- African regulatory framework for food safety, suggesting that the focus of any African RASFF system could be more manageable, as it would focus on specific threats to food safety.

However, the major challenge of building up national food safety capacities to enable them to effectively operate within a coordinated African food safety framework still needs to be addressed. This would appear to be the priority area for support, with the activities of an AU Food Safety Authority and Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) being complementary.

This being noted, an AU-wide body, if properly resourced and managed, could initially provide extremely valuable assistance at national and sub-regional level in developing national food safety institutions and operational work programmes, with considerable economies of scale to be gained through coordinated pan-African initiatives.

Ultimately, however, the success of efforts to promote internal and external trade in verifiably safe food will hinge upon the success of nationally based institutions.

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