By Conrad Mwanawashe
Environmental Health personnel from across the country have been undergoing training on Food Safety Risk Analysis as part of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO)’s efforts to reduce food borne illness, one of the common health problems in Zimbabwe.
Food borne illness which include diarrhoea to cancers, are prevalent in the country.
Globally, an estimated 600 million – almost 1 in 10 people – fall ill after eating contaminated food and 420 000 die every year, resulting in the loss of 33 million healthy life years.
To fight this, FAO, under the European Union (EU) funded Transforming Zimbabwe’s Animal Health and Food Safety Systems for the Future (ZAGP-SAFE) project has been training Environmental Health personnel based on the FAO/WHO Food Safety Risk Analysis Guide for National Food safety Authorities.
Participants will be exposed to new tools and methods linked to food risk analysis, that range from risk profiling to understanding risk ranking tools & the concept of conversion of food safety data into risk ranking metrics.
From 6-8 April, FAO has been training the last group of participants from Matebeleland North Province. This group (with 36 participants) will add to the 275 Environmental Health Officers that have been trained by FAO since November 2021, according to Victor Nyamandi, Director for the Department of Environmental Health Services in the Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC).
“It is important to have a well prepared food inspection service that can achieve rapid and cost-efficient control of hazardous foods,” Nyamandi said.
The training is focusing on risk assessment, risk management and risk communication
According to FAO, SAFE Project Coordinator Basil Mugweni, the training capacitated Environmental Health Officers on the application of risk based approaches during food safety inspections, including familiarising participants with notions of risk, food and hazard combinations.
Food Safety Manager in the Ministry of Health and Child Care, Margaret Tawodzera highlighted that the programme enhanced the capacity of food inspectors to, “identify high-risk foods or high-risk food preparation processes, which will enable inspectors to focus the inspection on those foods or processes that are more likely to cause foodborne illness if uncontrolled.”
Tawodzera added that after the training officers would be equipped with knowledge & skills to protect consumers by implementing adequate food controls that ensure that food is properly handled, stored, manufactured, processed, transported, prepared, served & sold.
The scope of the SAFE project is not confined to Food Safety Risk Analysis training; it also covers, development of policy documents such as the country’s Food Safety strategy, Food Establishments minimum health guidelines and Food Recall Regulations.
