and quality. The group established Somali Food Industry (SFI) on the of 1st January 2020. The SFI’s main office is located in Garowe, the capital city of Puntland State of Somalia. The organization’s major responsibilities are 

to provide awareness and training on food hygiene practices, proper food storage environment, information on food standards, knowledge on food nutrition, food handling/storage quality and the control of food contamination. This should greatly benefit the food industry chain operators and other stakeholders. The group among others, is also committed to providing advisory services to food business operators (processors) and food laboratories willing to purchase equipment from the suppliers seeking training for their staff. It plans to convey messages through social media, TV, Radios and phone text. This is in addition to conducting forums in universities, schools and business malls. 

Vision: SFI is committed to promoting the provision of and access to safe, wholesome and nutritious food to the public, by contributing to mitigation of the burden of foodborne illness through awareness and advocacy and improving hygienic practices.

Mission: SFI stands to mitigate foodborne illnesses by upholding the food hygienic practices through access to healthy and nutritious foods by promoting education and advocacy. 

SFI’s objectives include (but not limited to)

• To motivate the food processing industry for adoption of food safety and quality assurance mechanisms such as Total Quality Management (TQM) including ISO 9000, ISO 22000, HACCP, GMP, GHP and GAP. 
• To keep Somali food industry and citizens abreast of international best hygiene practices. 
• To provide information on existing and new international and regional food standards food
• categories and industry sectors. 
• To provide knowledge and information on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) Analysis and pre-assessment to determine a company’s needs. 
• To train the food industry staff in new policies and procedures, increasing their overall awareness. 
• To help improve the existing food safety practices and procedures.

The group’s values include: Innovation, Generosity & Empowerment, Integrity, Respect, Teamwork, Ethics and Environmental care.

Consult for a range of services that can be offered

The workshop was held in Abuja from 24-27 Feb 2020 with the following objectives: To raise awareness of veterinary drug residues in the food chain and its possible implication on antimicrobial resistance (AMR); to develop a draft national residue monitoring programme for Nigeria. This workshop was facilitated by Dr Mabel Aworh-Ajumobi under the supervision of the Chief Veterinary Officer of Nigeria Dr Olaniran Alabi and Dr Dooshima kwange. More than 35 participants took part in the workshop.

Some cross-cutting work that has been done (and continues) includes studies relevant to AMR such as “Extended-spectrum Beta lactamase producing E. Coli among humans, chickens and poultry environments in Abuja, Nigeria” https://onehealthoutlook.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s42522-020-00014-7

These include the elderly, sick, pregnant mothers and others that were hand-to-mouth workers. More than 340 metric tonnes of beans and maize have been cleared for door-to-door distribution, while several others were rejected following tests for hazards and from a quality perspective. This is a welcome contribution in tough times.

This will go along way in assisting the laboratory improve their quality management systems and the path to as well as maintaining accreditation. The participant is now sharing the knowledge back home with others. Knowledge gained including developing, implementing and maintaining an ISO 17025 Laboratory Quality Management System. The aspects covered included: Strategies in developing, implementing and monitoring of a management system; Understating and developing Quality system procedures; Techniques for conducting audits, reporting its findings and follow up action; Understanding methods development, validation and uncertainty in measurements. On another note, a quality management expert from CVRL then undertook a mission to conduct a week-long training at the LCSSA Benin in support of their quality management system. This is helping the LCSSA in rendering quality service and accreditation plans. More than 10 personnel benefited from the training.

Need to initiate the process of accreditation of veterinary drug residues research analyzes according to the ISO17025 stop enhance exports was discussed. Possibilities for formal agreements among various Senegalese authorities in charge of the control of foodstuffs with clear analytical needs identified, was also addressed. In this regard DPIV-ONSSA’s experience on service delivery, resource mobilization and the procedure for the purchase of equipment and laboratory reagents adopted at the DPIV-ONSSA was presented and discussed. Another critical area discussed was analytical flow management.

at the National Metrology Institute of South Africa on ISO 17034:2016:General Requirements For The Competence of Reference Material Producers; Reference Material Production; and Estimation of Uncertainty of Measurements for Analytical Laboratories. Among others, topics covered included preparation and processing of flour and cassava samples spiked with a range of pesticides; kidney spiked with a number of veterinary drugs, as well as analysis using state-of-the-art instrumentation. The participants also enhanced their knowledge on estimation of measurement uncertainty; method development; homogeneity and stability assessment. These are trainers that will be expected to train others in their countries and on the continent. Plans are underway to arrange for PTs for heavy metals including Cadmium in Cocoa using materials from a number of African countries.

others. This was a followup of a previous visit by a senior scientist from the CVRL to TFDA over a year ago. Such exchanges provide opportunities to share knowledge and experiences and are strongly encouraged.

ongoing (or planned) in their respective countries. There are opportunities to work together and contribute more effectively to the process of standards/guideline setting including generation of data, among others.

including veterinary drug and pesticide residues, mycotoxins among others. The two institutions will also be able to share these resources to train others on the continent.

Participants also enhanced knowledge on basic troubleshooting and maintenance of analytical tools and accessories used in elemental analysis. The participants were joined by resources persons from the Universities of Botswana and Ibadan as well as an expert from Perkin Elmer. This meeting provided an opportunity to further strengthen networking.

among others. A number of network members have been conducting such activities such as (though not limited to): Algeria, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.  Some of these include: Sharing findings on mycotoxins to SMEs in Central Dodoma; Honey producers and lab collaborating in Algeria; Stakeholder workshops with farmers and farmer representative organisations in Zimbabwe (e.g. advising farmers on responsible use of veterinary medicinal products and plant protection products)

scientists from NISIR as well as University of Zambia, Central Veterinary Research Institute, Food and Drugs Control Laboratory and Zambia Bureau of Standards. The tool will enhance the testing and monitoring of mycotoxins, veterinary drug and pesticide residues including reducing the costs of confirmatory analyses and improving turn-around time.

on veterinary drug and mycotoxin analysis in Nouakchott, Mauritania. The beneficiaries were 15 scientists from the National Office for Research and Development of Livestock (ONARDEL); the National Institute for Public Health Research (INRSP); the National Laboratory for Quality Control of Medicines (LNCQM); the National Office of Sanitary Inspection of Fisheries and Aquaculture Products (ONISPA); the Faculty of Science and Technology (FST); and the Port of Nouakchott. This workshop has made a difference and boosted analytical confidence. Local networking is also strengthened.

recently met to discuss food safety activities in the region and plan for the future. The meeting was held by Tunisia’s CNSTN and held at the Regency Tunis Hotel. Besides sharing on successes and challenges the group looked at future plans including a prospective regional project aimed at enhancing food safety, consumer confidence and boost regional economies through supply of safe & competitive agricultural products. The vision of this working group include: at a minimum, establishment or supporting a continent-wide operational risk assessment body; promoting risk-based monitoring and control; furthering networking of national risk assessment bodies; having better-developed safety and quality infrastructures; increasing accreditation of laboratories; and strengthening national/regional food safety control to safeguard local consumers (besides promoting agri-food exports). The group also discussed the second African Food Safety Conference anticipated in 2020.

Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Morocco, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Tunisia, UR Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The purpose of the event was to develop regional laboratory capabilities to test and monitor offal for residues of pharmacologically active veterinary substances used in animal production. Such capabilities are lacking and so far, data on residues is also difficult to find, safe for routine matrices such as kidney and liver. The group found 3 analytical methods that are suitable and the participants are now following up in order to implement or improve the methods by adapting them to respective laboratory conditions.

and pesticides, collection and interpretation on analytical data and sharing of analytical methods. This was an opportunity to interact with others from Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Indonesia, Mongolia, Paraguay, Turkey and Uruguay as well as Export Inspection Council of India, Ministry of Commerce and Industry and the Export Inspection Agency, Kochi and Kolkata. Work included inorganic arsenic, methyl mercury, cadmium and pesticides of  critical relevance to trade, in a range of foods e.g. fruits, fish, cocoa and rice. A range of instruments were used.