admin_county December 13, 2019

More than 50% of Nakuru County residents consume street foods

By Leleti Jassor

Consequently, there has been an increase in the morbidity of consumers of street foods and street food vendors are thought to be the source if not the cause of an increase in foodborne diseases.

As a result, Nakuru County is in the process of establishing and maintaining a rational, integrated farm-to-fork food safety system that harmonizes interagency efforts to ensure the protection of public safety.

CECM Agriculture, Dr. Immaculate Maina, said that, in developing relevant policy frameworks to ensure food safety, only then will the public especially farmers, transporters and all food handlers adhere to safe food production and handling practices to reduce the burden of foodborne disease in the county.

Dr. Maina was speaking during a three-day food safety workshop with the Food Safety Coordination Committee and the Nakuru County Agriculture Committee Members.

AgriFi Programme Manager, Godfrey Nyang’ori, noted that most of the focus in the past has been on export but not on the local market, therefore, the need for policy frameworks to be able to deliver the full mandate on issues good safety.

In addition to food safety, Mr. Nyang’ori said that Nakuru County will receive an additional 2 million Euros in support of the Agricultural Technical Vocatiocational Training (ATVET) at the Agricultural Training Center (ATC) key for the training of farmers especially the youth and women.

Dr. Maina concluded that the policy frameworks could be used to influence courses to suit farmers and the county would look into opportunities of sponsoring students in Nakuru County under the food safety programs.

Henning Hoy Nygaard, Sector Counsellor- Food, of the Royal Danish Embassy, said that, in spearheading food safety, the county would be expected to tighten the regulatory systems within their mandate to ensure food safety and ensure inclusion.

The AgriFI Food Safety is a 5-year program born out of a delegated cooperation arrangement between EU and the Royal Danish Embassy with Micro Enterprise Support Programme Trust (MESPT) as an implementing partner in support of food safety through an investment of about 5 million euros.