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IAEA Interregional Food Safety Training.

  21st February , 2017 ,       Hits: 162

From the 6th-17th Feb 2017, Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) hosted delegates from 11 countries for the first ever interregional Food Safety Training workshop. The technical meeting on improving food safety through the creation of an inter-regional network that produces reliable scientific data was supported by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).It is a 4 year program aimed at generating reliable data that will eventually be used in developing International Food Standards. The opening meeting of the training was graced by the State Minister for Trade Hon. Michael Werikhe. He noted that the training was very timely since Uganda is increasing its exports of the various food and animal products it produces. ‘We need to have our products produced acceptable in the international market’ he said.

Residues in crops, meat and veterinary drugs are monitored with what is called Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs).Most of our agricultural produce in trade are rejected for failure to conform to MRLs hence rendering the products unsafe for human consumption.

Misuse of agro-chemicals leads to presence of their residues in human food which have harmful effects to the human health.

Effective food safety monitoring programs and analytical labs capacities are important and updated techniques are necessary to help asses and manage new and already known food risks to protect the consumer.

The newly acquired Radio Receptor Assay Tool (Charm II) is an appropriate screening tool to produce accurate data to facilitate trade. It will test products like fish, beef, milk, honey and animal feeds for compliance.