Copperbelt food safety level drops

COMPLIANCE levels in food safety on the Copperbelt are low, acting Provincial Health Director Joseph Musowoya has lamented.

Dr Musowoya said compliance levels in the province were low despite Government’s efforts to scale up food sampling and inspections.

He said therefore that Government had increased the recruitment of officers responsible for ensuring food security in the Ministry of Health, the local authorities and other statutory bodies like Zambia Bureau of Standards.

Dr Musowoya was speaking in Kitwe during the commemoration of World Food Safety day under the theme, ‘food safety, everyone's business.’

"Even though the number of food sampling and inspections has been increasing, percentage of food inspections in compliance with the standards have been declined," he said.

Dr Musowoya said 23,462 food inspections were conducted on the Copperbelt in 2018 but only 12 percent were in compliance with the standards, which was a drop from 79 percent in 2017.

He added that only 51 percent of water samples and 22 percent of salt samples that were subjected to tests met the World Health Organisation standards. Dr Musowoya said the incidents of food borne diseases had also been on the rise with 81 case of food poisoning recorded at the end of May last year for the Copperbelt, surpassing the past two years when 49 and 54 were recorded respectively.

He has urged the public to adopt safe food handling practices.

Meanwhile, Kitwe District Commissioner Binwell Mpundu said with the growing population and economic activities on the Copperbelt, the food security chain has become more complex thereby posing a risk to adverse food safety incidences.

Mr Mpundu has appealed to everyone involved in the food chain system to play a role in making the food safe.

He said Government has put in place laws and regulations to ensure food safety is prioritised in the nation.