Journal of Food Processing & Technology

Conduits of excellence - An attempt to consistently address quality issues of food products from Nigeria

2^nd International Conference on Food Safety and Regulatory Measures

June 06-08, 2016 London,UK

Heiner Lehr and Raymond Tavares

Syntesa Partners and Associates, Spain
United Nations Industrial Development Organisation, Austria

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Food Process Technol

Abstract:

The dried beans, melon seeds and other agricultural sectors in Nigeria have important food safety and quality issues, often related to pesticide residues and mycotoxins. Chemical treatments are applied without any coordination, leading to pesticide residues sometimes, multiple times established MRLs. Improper storage conditions due to lack of training and infrastructure further lead to other issues like mycotoxin contamination. As a consequence, dried beans are temporarily banned from export to the European Union. In a UNIDO implemented project financed by the European Union, a National Quality Infrastructure (NQI) is being implemented which entails policy development training, equipment, standard development and technical assistance. The project has developed an implementation methodology �??Conduits of Excellence�?� which puts the NQI into practice by creating strictly quality and food safety managed �??corridors�?� in a collaboration between the private and the public sector and UNIDO as facilitator. Components of the Conduits of Excellence will be organised around an infrastructure element; this was identified to be the storage facilities. Hand-selected farmers, storage operators and processors work together under a comprehensive management system, supported by extension officers, laboratories and standards. Conduits of Excellence create value for the chain partners through better access to high-value markets; similar to the �??Approved Trader�?� concept, preferential export conditions are also being considered. Trading partners are encouraged to buy from Conduits of Excellence, creating a pull effect in addition. In this contribution, we report on the first results from the implementation in 2016 of the Conduits of Excellence for Nigerian dried beans.

Biography :

Email: heiner@syntesa.eu