EatSafe project to host webinar on food safety innovations for traditional markets

The World Health Organization estimates that every year, 600 million people become ill and many die because of unsafe food. Up to 38% of those affected are children under five years of age, and 53% were people living in low- and middle-income countries.

To address this gap, the Evidence and Action Towards Safe, Nutritious Food (EatSafe) project recently organized an EatSafe Innovation Challenge aimed at encouraging the development of food safety solutions or safer food products towards improving food safety in traditional markets where most consumers in low- and middle-income countries access their food.

On Tuesday 13 December 2022, the EatSafe project will host a webinar to highlight the importance of innovative solutions in food safety, and their applicability to low- and middle-income countries, specifically in traditional markets and along the food value chain.

This webinar is the second part of a series on innovative approaches to food safety. The first webinar, held in January 2022, featured consumer-centred approaches to food safety research.

In this second webinar, speakers will share on the application, implementation and practice of innovative solutions for food safety, including highlights from finalists of the EatSafe Innovation Challenge.

Below are details of the hour-long webinar and how to register.

Date: Tuesday 13 December 2022

Time: 0800 hours EST / 1400 hours CET / 1600 hours EAT

Registration link: https://bit.ly/food_safetywebinar 

Speakers

• Delia Grace, Professor of Food Safety Systems, Natural Resources Institute and Joint-appointed Scientist, International Livestock Research Institute
• Helen Weldemichael, CEO, Safe Dish Ethiopia and Assistant Professor, Wolkite University
• Oyeyemi Fadairo, Project Lead, Solarflex Dryers
• Richard Pluke, Chief of Party, EatSafe project

EatSafe is a project of Feed the Future and the United States Agency for International Development.

Photo credit: Fruit and vegetable shop in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (University of Florida/Geraldine Klarenberg)

 

New case study presents nine-year follow-up of pilot project to improve food safety in Bodija market, Nigeria

Goat in a market in Nigeria (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann).

Foodborne disease is a major public health problem in poor countries, but we lack effective, sustainable and scalable approaches that work in the traditional, informal markets where most fresh, risky food is sold.

A promising intervention is working with informal sector vendors to provide training and technologies, an enabling environment, and motivation for behaviour change.

A case study published in the March 2019 issue of the journal Infection Ecology & Epidemiology presents a long-term follow-up of a pilot project to improve food safety in Bodija abattoir and meat market, one of the largest markets in Nigeria.

An evaluation shortly after implementation found the intervention was acceptable, cost-effective and resulted in safer meat. The follow-up nine years later used qualitative surveys and microbiological tests.

The policy environment had become disabling, partly because of attempts by the authorities to move butchers to a modern, hygienic but more distant abattoir; this was resisted by the butchers.

Authorities revoked the licence for Bodija market and stopped providing services. Matters escalated and forceful attempts to remove butchers resulted in deaths followed by riots. Meat safety deteriorated.

The case study shows the importance of an enabling environment and need for stakeholder collaboration in attempting to improve food safety in the traditional sector.

Access the article, Improving food safety in the informal sector: nine years later by Delia Grace, Morenike Dipeolu and Silvia Alonso.

 

CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health publishes 2017 annual report

The CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH) has published its 2017 annual report which highlights the program’s accomplishments and activities during the first year of its second phase.

Detailed in the report are research, events and results from across A4NH’s five research flagships and four focus countries, including:

• in-depth analyses of food systems in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Vietnam, with a recently released report on findings in Ethiopia;
• details on the release of 29 new biofortified crop varieties, extending reach to 3.6 million farming households;
• the first licence for Aflasafe to be granted to a private company in Africa, for production, sale, and distribution in the Gambia and Senegal to protect crops from aflatoxin;
• a special issue of the journal Global Food Security dedicated to stories of change, an innovative initiative building a resource base of experiential knowledge that explores drivers of change in improving nutrition;
• research into how rice intensification in Africa can be achieved without increasing the risk of malaria; and
• efforts on incorporating equity into A4NH’s research agenda.

Download the annual report or read an interactive online version.