Developing countries are becoming more and more involved in international food trade. There is a shift from traditional production and sale of raw crops to producing processed or semi processed food products.
By Hudson Kuteesa
Developing countries are becoming more and more involved in international food trade. There is a shift from traditional production and sale of raw crops to producing processed or semi processed food products.
Though it is to be counted an achievement, this shift has brought in new challenges that demand for measures in form of effective control systems to cope with international trends in food regulations and standards. These systems are essential to protect the health of consumers. They are vital in enabling countries to assure imported food products or of those intended for export mett national, regional and international quality and safety requirements.
With this and more in mind, the Ministry of Health in May 2012 requested FAO technical assistance to strengthen the institutional framework of the food safety control system for Rwanda; and, based on that request, a 24-month project dubbed "Strengthening the food safety control system of the government of Rwanda” was formulated and funded to operate from 01 January 2014 to 31 December 2015 to contribute to the improvement of the institutional and legal framework of the food safety control system of the Government of Rwanda.