NRCS joins the rest of the global community to commemorate the World Food Safety Day on 7 June 2024, which aims to transform food systems to deliver better health sustainably and prevent foodborne diseases such as Listeriosis.
This day provides an opportunity to strengthen efforts to ensure that the food we consume is safe and reduce the burden of foodborne illnesses globally. Observed under the theme “Food safety: be prepared for the unexpected,” the WFSD serves as a clarion call for everyone to join the commemoration to ensure that the risk of foodborne health hazards prevent or minimised. The theme also aligns with the NRCS’s preventative approach and inspection-at-source strategy within its regulatory framework. The NRCS inspection framework ensures that all the food safety elements are included to support the preventative approach.
The WFSD also aims to raise awareness among consumers and stakeholders across the food value chain about the importance of food safety. Despite the collective efforts of all parties involved, food safety incidents can still occur due to unforeseen circumstances where controls may fail at any point in the value chain. Recognising that food safety is a shared responsibility, the NRCS’s Compulsory Specifications, published under the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition’s (dtic) mandate compels the manufacturers and food business operators to promptly report any food safety-related non-conformance to the NRCS.
To support this requirement, the NRCS deploys resident inspectors at facilities producing regulated commodities, such as fishery products, canned fish and processed meat to conduct proactive inspections at critical points.
This inspection approach is guided by International Food Safety Management Guidelines and in particular, the responsibility of Food Business Operators in the value chain to have and maintain the Food Safety Management Systems that identifies, evaluates and controls significant food safety hazards. The recent voluntary product recall of canned mollusc due canned defects detected at the source, exemplifies the effectiveness of this preventative strategy.
NRCS works in collaboration with relevant stakeholders in country’s food regulatory system, which includes the Department of Health (DoH), Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD), the National Consumer and Commission (NCC) in managing food safety incidents and applicable product recalls where necessary.
These collaborations are aimed to ensure food is safe, thus to protect customers and facilitate fair trade practices in line with the Food Safety Regulatory mandate of the dtic. Thus, the NRCS calls upon everyone to join forces and practice food safety awareness.
