Africa sets goals to meet WHO’s food safety strategy targets

A framework has been produced to help African countries implement the WHO’s strategy on food safety.

The World Health Organization (WHO) African region is estimated to have the highest burden of foodborne diseases per population. Based on figures published in 2015, more than 91 million people fall ill due to the consumption of contaminated food, and 137,000 die each year.

Bacterial and viral threats cause about 70 percent of foodborne infections, and parasites account for 17 percent. Non-typhoidal Salmonella causes the most deaths, killing 32,000 a year. Chemical hazards such as cyanide and aflatoxins that mainly affect staple crops account for one quarter of deaths from foodborne diseases in Africa. Konzo, a form of paralysis caused by cyanide in cassava, is unique to the region.

A few years ago, WHO updated its global strategy for food safety for 2022 to 2030. It included a target of a 40 percent reduction in foodborne diarrheal disease incidence estimated per 100,000 population.

Aims for Africa
A framework was presented and adopted at the latest WHO Regional Committee for Africa meeting. Milestones by 2027 include at least 35 member states will have a food safety system with updated regulations and/or a food safety policy, compared to 28 in 2022.

At least 35 member states will have established a national multi-sectoral collaboration mechanism for food safety events to meet the requirements of at least Level 4 of the International Health Regulations State Party Self-Assessment Annual Reporting Tool (IHR-SPAR), compared to 11 in 2022.

At least 23 member states will have systems in place for surveillance of foodborne diseases and contamination that meet the requirements of at least Level 3 of the International Health Regulations Joint External Evaluation assessment criteria (JEE), compared to six in 2022.

By 2030, the target is that all member states will have met these three goals.

In the African region, national food control systems have multiple gaps, including weak food monitoring and surveillance, limited capacity of food testing laboratories, weak food inspection capacities, and outdated regulations.

Issues and challenges include inadequate resources, dependence on small- and medium-scale food businesses with limited capacity, lack of multi-sectoral collaboration, limited data generation and risk assessment capacities, and low consumer awareness and engagement levels.

The majority of households rely to varying degrees on informal local markets to supply their food. These markets often lack basic services and infrastructure, including access to safe water supply, suitable sanitation and drainage, and effective waste disposal.

Priority actions in the framework include developing food safety policies, legislation and standards for the formal and informal sectors; reinforcing capacity for risk-based inspection across the food chain; raising public awareness; strengthening monitoring and surveillance; and reinforcing capacity for food safety risk assessment and management.

WHO and FAO coordination
As well as WHO’s food safety strategy, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has agreed on its Strategic Priorities for Food Safety from 2022 to 2031.

The FAO priorities are to promote food safety and strong food control systems for development of sustainable agrifood systems and food security policies.

Activities highlighted in both documents include consideration of a One Health approach to better address current and emerging food safety risks and integration of sound scientific advice as a basis for communication with stakeholders and decision-making.

Guiding principles for cooperation on food safety include decisions on the management of risks to food safety must be based as much as possible on scientific evidence and risk assessment and national food control systems should be based on prevention.

Coordination areas of both strategies includes Codex Alimentarius, scientific advice programs – such as the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Meeting on Microbiological Risk Assessment (JEMRA), to strengthen and improve national food control systems, and to communicate about safe food through methods such as World Food Safety Day.

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Source: https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2025/01/africa-sets-goals-to-meet-whos-food-safety-strategy-targets/