Grub is a basic must-have. We chow down and break bread with kin and pals daily. Munchies give us crucial perks: stomping out hunger, fueling our bodies, fostering growth, and sparking cultural and trade exchanges.
But, these perks hinge on food safety. Unsafe food ain’t food at all. Sadly, sketchy eats snatch away hundreds of lives each year.
From World Health Organization (WHO) data, unsafe grub causes around 600 million bellyaches and over 400,000 deaths worldwide annually. A 2019 World Bank drill-down found foodborne woes hit low-income nations hardest, with Sub-Saharan Africa losing around $110 billion yearly on doctor bills and lost labor.
For this reason, and to meet new trade needs and growing consumer worry, governments globally are rolling out slick food control systems and safety rules.
In 2018, the United Nations General Assembly pegged June 7 as World Food Safety Day to spotlight and tackle foodborne dangers.
This go-around, as we toast World Food Safety Day, Somalia’s at a game-changing spot: about to unveil its debut National Food Safety Policy.
This groundbreaking policy will lay the cornerstone for a modern, science-savvy food safety control setup. Its rollout will boost public health, ramp up food security, and open doors for bigger food trade and market access.
The policy dovetails with a major shift led by H.E. Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre’s upcoming National Transformation Plan, aiming to pull Somalia deeper into the global market scene.
Policy Hotspots
The Somali Food Safety Policy targets a trio of goals: (1) shield Somali health, (2) push safe food production and smooth out trade, and (3) upskill all food safety players.
Given climate change’s tough break on Somalia, another standout goal is boosting food producers’ grit against droughts and busts.
To hit these marks, we suggest overhauling old food safety laws and crafting a modern control system. We’re eyeing a national food safety agency, an early warning setup for fresh food issues, and a “Farm-to-Table” traceability and recall system.
Food Safety is Everyone’s Gig
Rooted in shared commitments and the Somalia One Health Strategic Plan, policy development thrived on dialogue and close chats with all key players. It started with a deep dive involving ministries, agencies, and folks in the food biz. We also pinched insights from countries in the same boat.
The primary Food Safety Policy draft got whipped up thanks to World Bank’s Horn of Africa De-risking, Inclusion and Value Enhancement of Pastoral Economies (DRIVE) project in Somalia.
Looking ahead, the Ministry of Livestock, Forestry and Range will keep the convo going with feds, states, industry pros, researchers, and everyone in the food loop, ensuring the policy vibes with varied views and priorities.
As Somalia commemorates World Food Safety 2024 on this wave, we can’t wait to nail the next big feat: enacting the policy. Getting there will take a collective push because food safety is inherently a shared duty and everyone’s gig.
The writer is the Director General of the Ministry of Livestock, Forestry, and Range (MoLFR).
