The Nigerian Institute for Food Science and Technology (NIFST) has urged stakeholders in food industry to adopt the risk based inspection approach in food production to avoid food borne illnesses.
John Tehinse, the Chairman of the Abuja chapter of the institute made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Tuesday.
“The risked based inspection approach is proactive because it ensures consumer confidence in the food production system by detecting harmful substance in food before it goes out for public consumption.
“Risk based inspection uses verifiable evidence to support the safety of the food production system.
“Its goal is to identify risk and reduce the hazard in public health by providing sound regulatory foundation for domestic and international food business, thus contributing to economic development.
“It does this in a simple procedure which consists of two main activities which include: verification for risk control in place and verification that the procedure is carried out,” he said.
Tehinse however decried the inadequacy of the food inspection officers that were supposed to carry out these procedures compared to the size of the industry.
“There is a large gap in the number of inspectors compared to the number of the places they ought to inspect. They help to protect public health by reducing the risk of food borne illnesses.
“But our system instead of being protective has become reactive, leaving the industry to be self regulatory, especially the multinational that have the means to do so.
“That means we wait for something to go wrong before taking action instead of the other way round. Traditional food inspection has to do with overseeing and enforcing of food safety regulations.
He said that every country had a food control system in place to control food safety though it varied from country to country.
“The principal objective of the food inspector is to shield the public health by reducing risks through food inspection to determine safety.”
The chairman said that there was inadequate quality and quantity of inspectors in relevant sectors from farm to table as we as inconsistence in inspection activities between MDAs.
He stressed the need for a paradigm shift to risk based food inspection approach to rescue the food production industry in the country.
Tehinse urged the Federal Government to recruit trained food inspectors that would implement adequate food control measures.
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