The Zambia Civil Society Scaling Up Nutrition Alliance says the Food Safety Bill that was recently presented to Parliament does not provide a conducive environment for the private sector to promote food safety.
Appearing before the Parliamentary Committee on Health, CSO-SUN Country Coordinator Mathews Mhuru, has noted that a substantial part of the new bill is dedicated to only policing and not enough to the roles and responsibly of the state to provide public services that ensure food safety can be realized and adequately maintained.
Mr. Mhuru says despite the majority of Zambians accessing foods from markets and streets especially fresh produce, not much investment has been made to promote access to clean water and sanitation in markets and streets where people trade.
“Mhuru has noted that the regulation of artificial foods is missing in the Bill and this will be a growing issue in coming years” He said.
Mr Mhuru has also recommended that labelling and advertisement of food in the Bill should deliberately mention the terms Healthy, and Nutritious foods as these are the most commonly used false claims by food producers in their advertisement of food products.
He said if left unchecked, this has the potential to worsen the already escalating Non-Communicable diseases especially among vulnerable populations.
Mr. Mhuru has since described as progressive the proposed establishment of a national food laboratory and has recommended that laboratories should perform routine food testing to monitor compliance and conduct trace back investigations where there is food borne disease outbreaks.
Minister of Health Dr. Chitalu Chilufya last month presented the Food Safety Bill to Parliament and it passed the first reading.
The Bill is at the committee stage on Health Community Development and Social Services which is expected to present the report to the Speaker on 17th July, 2019.