THE Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) has appealed to traders to strengthen systems for production of food products to protect people’s health and access export markets.

Dr Ashura Katunzi, TBS Acting Director General, made the appeal in Dar es Salaam yesterday during a stakeholders’ debate to mark World Food Safety Day that is celebrated worldwide on June 7, each year.

She said the government through its institutions implements several initiatives to deal with food safety risks and strengthens the food safety control system, including increasing monitoring and coordination of cross-cutting issues and communication between the government, food traders and the society in general.

“Safe food is everyone's responsibility. So, I call on every stakeholder to participate fully in this debate to discuss how each stakeholder is prepared to deal with emergencies caused by food contamination or the effects of eating unsafe food,” she said.

She said that everyone in their position has the responsibility to assess risks that can cause food contamination and its effects as well as set up infrastructure to deal with the situation in case it happens.

Dr Katunzi said consumers also have the responsibility to understand the risks of food safety and the environment that causes food contamination, the effects of eating unsafe food, providing information on unsafe food as well as understanding how to deal with incidents caused by eating unsafe food.

She said the theme for this year’s celebration is ‘Safe Food: Prepare for the unexpected’ which warns about the importance of being prepared at all times to face risks that may affect food safety.

“For that reason, stakeholders are encouraged to build capacity in preventing, deciding and dealing with emergencies caused by unsafe food because the effects of unsafe food are dangerous, including health and economic hazards,” she said. .

She said consumption of unsafe food has been associated with various diseases as well as health challenges such as poor growth in children, poor nutrition for adults and children, as well as an increase in infectious and non-infectious diseases.

In addition, she said according to the statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO), it is estimated that every year one person in every t10 people gets sick from eating unsafe food in the world, adding that 420,000 people who get sick die.

Festo Kapela, Senior Business Officer, Ministry of Industry and Trade, said that food safety is a long chain and each stakeholder must fulfil their responsibilities to ensure that food does not cause health harm to consumers.

TBS Acting Director of Quality Control Amina Yasin called on all stakeholders in the food chain to fulfil their responsibilities to ensure that they prevent risks from the time the food is produced in the farm until it reaches the final consumer.