Strathmore Business School (SBS) will this week
host the Food Safety Summit Africa Conference & Expo at Strathmore
University Auditorium to discuss food safety issues in Kenya and Africa.
The two-day forum that kicks off this Thursday May
28th to Friday May 29th, 2015 will bring together
international and regional service and product providers and policy makers;
regulatory agencies, entrepreneurs, managers and professionals from the food
agro industries in Sub-Saharan Africa for an intense dialogue on food safety matters.
Commenting on the forum, Strathmore Business
School Dean, Dr. George Njenga said: “Africa is faced with many challenges,
including inadequate human capital and infrastructure – required to produce,
harvest, store, transport, and process the bulk of its produce. This
often leads to huge losses and of course, an increase in unsafe food ending up
on the table of millions of unsuspecting consumers.”
“Food poisoning is today a major health issue that
costs families and households huge sums of money in treatment and in some cases
leading to deaths. But the problems of unsafe foods does not end there, the
rise in lifestyle diseases like cancer, hypertension and heart disease can also
be linked to the consumption of unsafe food,” he explained.
According to the Dean, the Food Safety Summit
Conference & Expo will serve as an important forum to engage the
Government, NGO’s, food value chain players and the public to build upon the
continent’s goal to “not only feed itself through agriculture and agro-processing,
but also to produce safe food and horticultural products for local and export
markets.”
The Conference will focus on current and emerging
food safety issues in Africa in the face of changes in regulatory environment
in the continent and its key export markets. Discussions at the conference will
take the farm-to-table approach - covering
the entire value chain from production, handling and storage, processing,
retail and distribution of food, beverages and agricultural produce and will
cover the latest information on food safety issues, from sanitation issues to
the latest technological breakthroughs in an open and informative manner.
Organizers say the Food Safety Summit Africa 2015 provides opportunity for the
continent and Kenya to start looking for African solutions for its unique food
safety challenges, while working with the international community, suppliers,
Governments, researchers and academia.
The Food Safety Summit Africa Conference &
Expo is an annual event that focuses on current and emerging food safety issues in the
continent in the face of changes in regulatory environment in
the continent and its key export markets.
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