Food Safety in Africa’s Dairy Value Chain Webinar

The dairy industry is one of the most important sectors in the food industry in Africa, due to its immense contribution to economic prosperity, food security and nutritional benefits to the Continent’s young and rapidly urbanising population.

Food safety and quality challenges continue to negatively impact the dairy sector’s ability to meet rising demand for dairy products across the Continent. These bottle-necks have also contributed to stifling further growth in pan-African regional trade in dairy products, which has seen some substantial growth in the last 5 years or so.

This webinar will take a value chain approach to unravel the opportunities to drastically improve food safety and quality within Africa’s dairy value chain – from farm to fork.

It will bring together dairy value chain experts, government officials, technology providers and other stakeholders from a number of countries in Africa, in a number of sessions covering the following key issues:

• Farm level interventions: Control of zoonotic diseases, improving hygiene practices and adopting new technologies at the farm level to manage food safety and quality in Africa
• Food Safety Culture: Identification of opportunities and challenges of developing and mainstreaming a food safety culture in the dairy value chain in Africa
• Capacity Building: Identification of opportunities to build the capacity of dairy industry farmers, workers, professionals and managers to facilitate food safety and quality compliance in Africa
• New Technologies: Investing in cold chain, processing, packaging and novel technologies to facilitate food safety and quality compliance in Africa’s dairy value chain
• Quality Infrastructure: Investing in new microbial and chemical testing technologies, and the laboratory infrastructure thereof, in facilitating food safety and quality compliance in Africa’s dairy value chain
• Regulatory Environment: The role of and challenges faced by regulators and policy makers in guiding the development of a vibrant food safety and quality-aware dairy sector in Africa
• Regional Trade Facilitation: Regional approaches to improving food safety and quality that facilitate trade within Africa and in the international markets