South Sudan sets up food safety monitoring agency

By Kitab Unango

South Sudan’s government on Thursday established the food safety body that will monitor the quality of all imported food in the country.

Josephine Lagu, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, said during the launch of the Food Safety Association of South Sudan (FSASS) that local farmers need to produce enough food to reduce over reliance on imported food.

 “Agriculture is the backbone of South Sudan which we need to invest in, and we in the ministry of agriculture and food security are working hard to ensure the government invests in agriculture to stop depending on imported food,” she said in Juba.

The FSASS will partner the National Bureau of Standards, to reinforce food safety and food standards in the country.

It will also monitor, train and sensitize food producers, vendors and consumers on hygienic food safety best practices, food standards, quality seeds, and crop disease control and management.

The FSASS with support from the European Union through the International Trade Center (ITC) will also train micro, small, and medium sized enterprises across the ten states and three administrative areas.

The Chairperson of the FSASS, Robert Matthew called on the government and food security partners to support the association to achieve it’s goals and improving citizens’ health.

“To achieve our goals, we must therefore continue to invest in food safety association in order to have enough food safety awareness and advocacy from production to consumption,” Mathew said.

 The Food Safety Association of South Sudan was launched under the theme “Safe food today for a healthy tomorrow”.