**2. Why food safety legislation must work in the developing economies?**

First, developing countries bear the greatest global burden of food-borne illnesses and death. The strain this adds to an already stretched public health services is huge. Second, regional and international trade is becoming extremely invaluable. For this reason, more sensitivity to food safety is needed. Benefits of safe, adequate, and nutritious food abound. It is crucial to long-term economic growth, good health, and productivity. It is also associated with a happier population that would enjoy reduced conflict. Countries in Africa and the rest of the developing world have some form of legislation regarding food safety. Some of this, however, are most rudimentary, archaic and at times not based on sound science. For these legislations to benefit the rest of the countries, there must be a push to align them to World Trade Organization (WTO)'s agreement on the application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) and Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) agreements and the Codex standards and codes of practice. Some of the standards are not science-based as required by Codex in a bid to help facilitate regional and international trade among different countries. This then curtails international trade and sometimes creating a bad notion of standards among processors. Several factors hamper the push to realize the implementation of food safety legislations in the countries such as inadequate technical capacity, lack of awareness of economic loss arising from poor quality foods, and weak enforcement of regulations among others [1]. The unveiling of the ISO allowed for HACCP to be upgraded through the International Standard ISO22000:2005 (Food Safety Management Systems—Requirements for any organization in the food chain). The ISO technical committee on food safety created in 1947 is one of ISO's oldest and most fruitful committees, with over 830 published regulations and 125 more in the pipeline. ISO standards have played a crucial role in promoting global standards, development of harmonization and awareness creation. In many developing countries, ISO 22000:2005 is not a mandatory food safety requirement and perhaps due to its complexity, cost of compliance or technicalities, only few companies that most of the times have qualified food safety experts manage to get the certification.

fraud. In spite of this, a lot of stride has been made with regard to development or adoption of international standards; however, what remains to be seen is the full implementation and

Food safety concept continues to gain attention particularly in developing countries. Many countries rely purely on small scale (subsistence) and street vendors to feed their populations. Yet, these traders are not usually included in the mainstream food safety systems. In flow of substandard and poor quality goods, corruption, low income, unjust trade, and political turmoil are ills deviling developing economies, and this adds to the challenge of food safety systems' operation. Generally, few of the developed countries have formalized agriculture systems. To this extent, farm implements, fertilizers, seeds crop management practices, and manufacturing are scattered across vast geographical locations. Food insecurity, political instability, outbreaks of communicable diseases and natural disasters are challenges that compete for government attention; hence, food safety is often not prioritized. Yet, the definition of food security from the 1996 World Food Summit Plan of Action mentions access to sufficient, safe, nutritious and affordable food to all people at all times. Often, it seems that in developing countries, not enough emphasis is put on the safety aspect of

According to published data by FAO and WHO, about 2000 food-borne-related deaths occur daily in Africa. Over 700,000 food-borne illnesses recorded annually are due to diarrhealrelated illnesses and from contaminated food and water. *Salmonella*, *Shigella flexneri*, *Shigella sonnei*, *Clostridium perfringens* and other parasites are major culprits. An alarming average of 3.3–4.1 episodes of diarrheal diseases among children in Africa has also been recorded annually. Coupled with malaria, HIV, TB, these become more debilitating, creating a huge dent on the public health's integrity. Food-borne illnesses lead to reduced productivity, disability, early deaths, low incomes and hence low access to food and the problem becomes cyclic. Illegal use of food additives, (E110, E102, E104, and E124) in local and imported foodstuff including infant foods, is an alarming case. Unless an approach that understands the unique challenges of developing economies are employed, the great food safety legislations may remain in revered books of codex without having a real impact on food safety situation in the

**2. Why food safety legislation must work in the developing** 

First, developing countries bear the greatest global burden of food-borne illnesses and death. The strain this adds to an already stretched public health services is huge. Second, regional and international trade is becoming extremely invaluable. For this reason, more sensitivity to food safety is needed. Benefits of safe, adequate, and nutritious food abound. It is crucial to long-term economic growth, good health, and productivity. It is also associated with a happier population that would enjoy reduced conflict. Countries in Africa and the rest of the developing world have some form of legislation regarding food safety. Some of this, however,

hence marked decrease in food safety-related incidences [1].

food security [2].

20 Food Safety - Some Global Trends

developing world [2].

**economies?**

#### **2.1. Key food safety regulations at the world stage with an impact on developing economies' food safety**

Africa has been reported to enjoy over 5% annual economic growth in the recent decade, and this growth rate is predicted to continue or even improve in the next couple of years. For African countries, opulence and affluence among her populace is creating a reason for demand of high quality safe and mostly longer lasting products [2]. This can also be said accurately of the rest of the developing economies especially in Asia as well as South America. The Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS), World Trade Organization (WTO)'s— Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) agreements are some of the regulations that require attention of all countries involved in any trans-border trade particularly of agricultural produce. The developing economies are huge exporters of raw or semi-processed agricultural goods, and these put them directly under the requirements of these legislations. Though there exists food safety standards in almost every country in one form or the other, these standards do not adequately help to improve food safety because of two main reasons. First, imports even of poor quality foods are not curtailed sometimes due to laxity, incapacity, or corruption. Some of the regulations are far stricter even beyond the codex requirements this more often than not hinders trade especially inter-regional trade. Second, there is very low level of implementation of regulations across board. This is why the regularization of laws and their harmonization should come into play. There are few global organizations that are at the forefront and with the expertise and neutrality to help countries navigate this concept of global standards harmonization. One such initiative is the Global Harmonization Initiative (GHI). More about the structure strategies and aims of the GHI and other such bodies are discussed in a later subheading.

### **2.2. Models of national food safety and quality control systems**

In general, it can be surmised that there are three major models adopted by countries in national food control systems: the single agency model relies on one organization or umbrella body which is mandated with all the functions of controlling food safety. This model has the advantage that food safety issues are accorded priority, and they can be highly effective. The second model implies multiple agency scenarios. In this case, the role of food safety is sector and commodityspecific. In this system, the roles could also be devolved to federal, local governments or counties and the national level. Some challenges with this model are: duplicity of functions, conflicts, and differing expertise at national and at the regional level, reduced domestic consumer confidence and confusion among stakeholders as to which laws to comply with. The third model is an integrated system: in this system, agencies are assigned jurisdiction based on aspects of food safety which cut across all the sectors such as policy development, coordination, inspection, education, and training. Irrespective of the model that best suits a country, it must be based on the principles of transparency, inclusiveness, integrity; clarity of roles, accountability, science/risk-based approach and equivalence as the benchmarks against which its success is measured [3].

currently through Codex Alimentarius Commission's (CAC) Working Groups to change this. This move should be encouraged and many countries ought to bring on the table several of their native foods. However, the standards development process must be supported by scientific data on nutritional and safety aspects of food which is a gap that needs to be filled. In addition, the standards development must be responsive and internationally oriented and

Food Safety Legislation in Some Developing Countries http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.75587 23

Legislation and standards that serve the intended purposes in guaranteeing food safety and cross border trade must be science-based. WHO and FAO had earlier, in 1992, stated that risk analysis must be the basis of any food safety framework [12], but in developing countries, lack of expertise, low investment in the requisite infrastructure, and difficulty in collecting own toxicological data is a hindrance to RA. This challenge is a huge one and requires collaborative and innovative efforts from all stakeholders. Toxicological exposure data in many developing countries is very scanty, inaccurate, and usually not timely. To help developing countries to conduct risk assessment, FAO/WHO studies is a great place to start but unless these are closely related to the country's specific needs, priority may differ from those of FAO and WHO and depending on FAO/WHO's focus data may take long to finally capture the

Food quality inspections demonstrate or validate the success or failure of food safety legislations. Legislations that are not enforced are not beneficial at all. This is a major setback in all the aspects of the developing countries. Many factors contribute to this; including low status often awarded to food safety officers, inadequate logistical support, and cumulative tasks required of them hence intermittent attention to the task of inspection. Inadequate geographical coverage in all areas of the country by inspectors of food legislations and neglect of rural

Inspections, and other aspects of food safety monitoring, depend largely on validation, and this is partly conducted by testing of samples to ensure enforcement of legislation. Rapid laboratory testing is also critical to implementation of food-borne illness' outbreak surveillance. In many cases, laboratory facilities in developing economies whether in Asia or Africa are old, poorly equipped and with either very few personnel or with low

Capacity to implement food safety legislations is a major determiner of success or failure of a food safety management system at the country level. Inadequate capacity is a bottleneck that cuts across many areas. This may be due to lack of competent personnel, lack of funding or

poor logistical support to carry out the different aspects dealing in food safety.

community means that their food safety concerns often go unaddressed.

the body responsible be accorded a clear mandate.

**3.4. Science-based risk assessment (RA)**

aspirations of specific countries.

**3.6. Laboratory testing services**

**3.5. Inspection**

competency.

**3.7. Capacity**
