How effective are laws and regulations to improving food safety and quality?

Food contamination hinders the possibility to achieve healthy diets and perpetuates a vicious cycle of food-borne diseases and malnutrition. While fresh fruits, vegetables and animal source foods are essential sources of nutrients, in LMICs they are often contaminated by microbiological and chemical hazards.
Focusing on some essential components of local diets that pose significant food safety challenges, namely fresh fruits and vegetables and processed fish in Côte d’Ivoire and milk products in domestic markets in Kenya, this study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of food safety laws and regulations in Africa. To do so, it analyses regulatory frameworks and their design process; the level of contamination of the selected food products; as well as the political, institutional and operational barriers that prevent their effectiveness.

The Nutrition Research Facility (NRF) conducted a series of consultations with decision-makers in EU Member States, EU partner countries, within Delegations of the EU in partner countries and within the European Commission, in order to identify their current concerns in relation to nutrition issues in development contexts. This question arose from a consultation workshop focusing on African countries. (NRF, 2022).

The approach first identifies existing policy and regulatory documents related to the selected products in the two countries; then maps the stakeholders involved in the food safety process; it further assesses the actual level of contamination of the products; and analyses the effectiveness of the regulation through interviews with key informants and consultation workshops.

The study highlights that, despite the existence of relevant laws and regulations, their degree of enforcement is largely inefficient to guarantee a satisfactory level of food safety and quality. Several factors contribute to explain this situation. Firstly, States’ capacities to enforce laws and regulations are weak and food control institutions lack coordination. Secondly, actors of the informal sector face strong difficulties to comply with regulations which are too costly for them and not adapted to their organisation and capacities. Indeed, the study shows that these actors are poorly associated in the design process of laws and regulations, stressing the critical issue of inclusiveness and not only enforcement to improve effectiveness of laws and regulations.

Strengthening food safety laws and regulations in Africa requires inclusive, risk-based approaches that account for the informal sector’s capacities. Policies should prioritise health-focused interventions (e.g. education on safe food handling, low-cost technologies, improved access to clean water).

More in-depth analyses of the perceptions and practices of economic operators – especially from the informal sector – regarding food safety would be necessary to ensure more inclusive regulatory frameworks. Exploring how law enforcement varies across territories, between urban and rural areas, and the role of local authorities, would be valuable.

Food safety and quality standards are essential for protecting public health and facilitating trade on the domestic and international markets.

Main contact: Arlène Alpha

Organisation: CIRAD

Email address: arlene.alpha@cirad.fr

Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques in Côte d’Ivoire (CSRS)
International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)