Marketing, processing, storage
Processing, storage
Research reports for "food safety"
Processing, storage
Research reports for "food safety"
- Combating food poisoning from seafood
A rapid and highly sensitive DNA test is now available to screen seafood for bacteria. Infected seafood, particularly shellfish, can cause food poisoning. Outbreaks damage consumer confidence and producers suffer, especially the poorest. Previously, screening for bacteria was slow, taking up to 7 days, and was not always accurate. These diagnostic techniques have been extensively tested on coastal and estuarine seafood in India, Bangladesh, China, Malaysia and Japan. They’ve been used not only for detecting bacteria in seafood but also for food safety tests and for monitoring bacteria in coastal areas popular for water sports. Hundreds of laboratories have adopted these methods and they are widely accepted by international food safety authorities. They will probably become routine for ensuring that fish exports meet EU, US and Japanese import standards. (Ref: PHF10) - Private sector serves horticultural industry in Kenya
Small companies are springing up in Kenya to help growers comply with international food safety standards. The export market for fresh vegetables is fairly well-developed but small growers are often left out when it comes to know-how on food safety and hygiene, and consumer preferences. But, by following advice from new small businesses, more than 23 farmer groups in the Central, Eastern and Rift Valley provinces have become certified, and more are in the pipeline. These business services spread very quickly to the Rift Valley, Coast and Western Kenya, and are rapidly expanding to other areas. Private-sector extension services could have a major impact on small-scale horticultural producers in East Africa, particularly for high-value crops where producers are more able to pay. (Ref: CPP64) - Fermentation helps meet growing urban demand for cassava products
Cassava producers are meeting growing urban demand for processed products thanks to new technologies for the manufacture of convenient, high-quality and environmentally safe foods. Private-sector partnerships are providing linkages between rural producers and urban markets, and a series of best practices and technologies are helping to match consumer preferences with the needs of rural processors, the private sector and market traders. The innovations include new specially developed dryers and fermentation vats, training centres for local businesses, professionals and post-graduate students, and a food safety manual that brings cassava processors up to speed on the new techniques. Processors and consumers validated the techniques and products in Nigeria and Ghana, where they are currently in use. (Ref: CPH41) - New tests keep poisons out of food - and off the table
A simple and affordable diagnostic tool is allowing food companies to measure the mycotoxin content of their foods. Mycotoxins are highly poisonous compounds produced by certain moulds that grow on a wide variety of foods and feeds. When eaten, they can cause disease and even death in livestock and people. Mycotoxin ingestion causes about 250,000 deaths a year in parts of sub-Saharan Africa. In cereals, edible nuts and oilseeds, the distribution of mycotoxins is highly localised. The new technology addresses this problem, zeroing in on infested areas accurately. This will have a major impact on food safety and productivity, significantly reducing the costs of testing. What is more important, it is available to all players, including people in developing countries with limited resources. (Ref: CPH17) - Protecting consumer health in cities
New knowledge about the policy linkages between food safety, poverty and environmental pollution has had a major impact in guaranteeing consumer health India. A key factor in the formula for success was the creation of a food-safety forum involving representatives from government, the private sector, and non-government and community organizations. They worked together on policy advocacy and developed and tested food-safety strategies. Environmental pollution can lead to contamination of fresh produce, endangering the health and livelihoods of people living in and around cities. The valuable institutional lessons, policy perspectives and processes that emerged from the Indian experience can help to promote pro-poor food-safety policy in other countries and contexts. (Ref: CPH06) - Street food comes clean
Street vendors and consumers are benefiting from an innovative system for the systematic management and control of informal food vending. The system is designed to ensure food safety and quality through the involvement and participation of all key players. To make the approach practical and easy to implement, it was divided into a series of logical modules. Over 5000 vendors have also received training in improved food safety, hygiene and financial management. Ghana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and India have systematically addressed specific issues affecting the informal sector. The new approaches have helped them to change the attitudes of food inspectors, from enforcement to providing sustainable support for vendor activities. The system is highly applicable to cities and towns across the globe. (Ref: CPH38) - New groundnut production techniques promote health and wealth
Feed manufacturers, national agricultural research systems (NARS), NGOs, farmers, traders and consumers in India, Malawi, Mozambique, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal are benefiting from new technologies that enable them to defend themselves against deadly aflatoxins. Previously, these natural carcinogenic agents produced by fungi in the soil were reducing the ability of the poorest farmers to sell their groundnut crops and were also threatening the health of consumers. The new control measures include a simple, low-cost aflatoxin diagnostic test kit, detection laboratories with staff trained in the use of the diagnostic kits, awareness-raising activities, farmer participatory testing of new varieties, and a range of pre- and post-harvest aflatoxin prevention techniques suitable for various agro-ecological and socio-economic conditions. (Ref: CPP16) - A new system helps smallholders keep pace with world markets
Rapid urbanisation and globalisation have opened up a world of opportunities for smallholder farmers who supply fresh produce. Yet big supermarket chains have high food-safety, quality and agricultural-practice standards, which present both technical and financial challenges. Partners in Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe and the UK have come up with a cost-effective and sustainable management and control system that allows fruit and vegetable smallholders to meet the stringent requirements of high-value EU retail markets. Either a farmers’ organisation or an exporter acts as the primary marketing organisation, ensuring that all growers involved are complying with the requirements. In the process, farmers and cooperative organisations strengthen their ability to negotiate with buyers, suppliers, banks and service providers. Although developed for fresh fruits and vegetables, the system could readily be adapted for other crops, livestock or aquaculture. (Ref: CPH20) - Better rice for higher incomes
A set of practical post-harvest technologies has helped the government of Ghana to improve the quality of locally grown rice, reducing imports by 30%. A range of actors along the production chain have improved their incomes while ensuring safety and boosting product quality. Although the use of this knowledge initially focused on the townships where it was developed, training manuals summarizing the fully tested and validated practices are now available. Agricultural extension agents are using the training manuals to transfer the knowledge to more farmers and processors. It could benefit an estimated 400,000 small-scale farmers and 125,000 women parboilers in Ghana alone. New partners from Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, Benin and Togo are finding the outputs relevant to their countries. (Ref: CPH03) - Cassava processors reap the benefits of new techniques
New processing technologies are enabling resource-poor cassava growers in sub-Saharan Africa to produce popular products for the market. They are selling high quality cassava flour and chips at a range of outlets in Tanzania, Madagascar, Zambia, Uganda and Mozambique. Processing equipment, produced locally at low cost, is reducing drudgery and credit schemes are allowing the cassava processors to get their businesses off the ground. Manuals and participatory methods are helping to spread the use of the new technology, monitor adoption and link cassava processors to markets. (Ref: CPH30) - Changing global seafood trade standards harm poor fishers
New research is warning policy makers that globalisation is harming poor fishing communities. These communities already have a smaller share of the market because of new regulations. More controls in the pipeline mean further downsizing. Poor fishers have no way of coping with these changes and must either be helped to find other ways of making a living or helped to adjust to the new standards. Involving communities in managing fisheries and in drawing up quality control processes is a start to helping them adapt. Governments, and development agencies and NGOs such as FAO, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, CARE and Oxfam, are already taking these new findings into account to plan fisheries developments that will help poor fishers cope with globalisation. (Ref: PHF14) - Participation makes ethical trade work for the poor
Although social and environmental codes of practice are now widespread in the export horticulture sector, they are not always effective in improving working conditions and livelihoods. New models and methods developed through work in Europe (the UK) and Africa (Ghana and Zimbabwe) allow poor people to participate directly in developing and implementing ethical codes of practice. They include guidelines on how to build support for such codes, as well as multi-stakeholder organisations to develop and implement them. The guidelines also set out how to develop practical criteria, indicators and verifiers, and how to conduct integrated social and environmental audits. The new knowledge also provides a better understanding of how future strategies, options and constraints will affect the further development of codes of practice for the benefit of poor people. Key ethical trade or fair trade bodies, both in horticulture and in other areas, are already putting these insights into practice. (Ref: CPH16) - Quality networks open markets for fish
Networks connecting producers, dealers, technical specialists, NGOs, public officials and consumers along fish market chains help people understand the need for quality products and set quality standards. Without quality standards for products, access to growing national and export markets may be blocked and producers denied higher prices. The network approach was successfully tested in Vietnam and Bangladesh. In Vietnam, companies processing fish for export set up the market quality network. This involved all those along the market chain working together to improve fish for export. Marketing networks to improve product quality have great potential not only for fish but for a large range of other products too. Not least, poor producers stand to benefit from better prices. (Ref: AFGP06) - Saving fish from flies and beetles
Insects - flies and beetles - destroy vast amounts of fish in developing countries while it is being processed or stored. This means less fish for food, poorer nutrition, and lower incomes. Attempts to control insects have met with mixed success, mainly because people don’t understand how, where and when insects infest fish. A study bringing together all that’s known about insects that damage fish vastly improves understanding. Now that processors are learning what to do to keep pests away from fish they are benefiting from fewer losses, better prices and lower costs. The reference on insects is being widely referred to by development and extension staff in Southern India, Africa, Uganda and Tanzania, as well as by NGOs and processors. (Ref: PHF12) - Understanding the blowfly life cycle helps promote hygienic fish processing
Understanding the blowfly lifecycle is helping village fish processors raise the quality of their products. Traditional methods of smoking, drying and salting fish in the tropics are often very unhygienic and between 25% and 90% go bad. Previously, processors were slow to adopt simple hygienic measures, such as disposing of waste, making sure the fish and utensils are clean, preparing brines properly, and drying fish on frames rather than on the ground. But when they understand that maggots in their fish come from blowflies they are quickly converted. The guide to help fisheries authorities and NGOs teach processors how to keep their products safe from blowfly maggots is being widely used in Africa, South Asia and South East Asia. (Ref: PHF11) - Weighing up costs and benefits in fish factories
Simple software helps managers in fish factories in developing countries record and analyse data. Collecting data is the first step towards weighing up costs and benefits. Using ice, disinfecting machinery and constructing better containers all cost money. The software helps managers decide the most cost-effective ways to improve production. Tested in Uganda and Ghana, the software has helped cost the benefits of using ice, and provides information for a booklet on sanitation in factories and for designing fish containers and holds. A prototype hold improved returns by at least 15%. Use of the software is spreading to Pakistan and Morocco, and there is already interest in Namibia, Denmark and India. (Ref: PHF13) - Quick, accurate tests identify plant diseases
Easy-to-use test kits now help laboratory staff in developing countries diagnose diseases rapidly. The traditional tests are expensive and time-consuming. This means that diseases, such as bacterial wilt in potato, groundnut and tomato, and leaf spot in banana, are often not correctly detected, or not detected in time. So, crop losses from these diseases in Africa and Asia are devastating. Now, laboratories in Mauritius, Malaysia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Trinidad use cost-effective kits to detect these diseases quickly and accurately. The design of the kits takes into account the often poor conditions in these laboratories. The tests have great potential for certifying crops for export and import, as well for meeting food safety standards. Many plant pathology laboratories around the world have already asked for them. (Ref: CPP79) - Safe biological pesticides for India and South Asia
Small-scale farmers in India can now use environmentally benign pest management methods. New biological pesticides mean that smallholders can control crop pests but still meet international food safety standards. This is particularly important for vegetables and fruit for export. Pollution from chemical pesticides is a major concern in India. Some of the old pesticides still in use are extremely toxic. Many workers, especially in cotton-growing areas, are poisoned. Government policy encourages locally produced, low-cost biological pesticides. Already, nearly 500 private and state laboratories have taken a 2.5% share of the Indian pesticide market. This share is growing rapidly as more and more are registered. (Ref: CPP55)
