The World Food Logistics Organization (WFLO), the research and education arm of the Global Cold Chain Alliance (GCCA),  partnered with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Nigeria Expanded Trade and Transport (NEXTT) program and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to host a National Food Safety Roundtable July 8-13, 2013.

The program drew more than 100 participants with representatives from the Nigerian government, food companies, industry associations, and university and development partners.

The program was designed to finalize and adopt the first National Food Safety Policy in Nigeria, complete with an implementation action plan. The event succeeded in creating synergy on food safety policy between the Nigerian Federal Ministries of Industry, Trade and investment, Agriculture and Rural Development and Health. Until now, each of the three ministries had separate food safety policies or food safety committees.

The roundtable culminated in the launch of the National Food Safety Management Committee (NFSMC), which was recently established by the Nigerian Federal Executive Council and is tasked with overseeing food safety policy and implementation in Nigeria.

“We succeeded in addressing food safety issues at each stage of the cold chain, including production, processing, handling, storage, packaging, and marketing,” explains Adebokola Sotubo, the WFLO Food Standards Advisor based in Nigeria on the NEXTT Project. “This will go a long way toward reducing post-harvest losses, which will lead to the increased production and sale of safe food products to improve the export trade and help reduce poverty in Nigeria.”

As a follow-up project to the Roundtable, WFLO will engage its members to provide hands-on technical assistance to improve and further develop the infrastructure needed to facilitate the movement of key commodities along the Lagos-Kano-Jibiya corridor (a 1,149-km road that carries between 5,000 and 17,000 vehicles daily). WFLO’s local representative, Sotubo will continue to  work with the newly- launched NFMSC to improve its capacity to implement the new National Food Safety Policy.

For more information, visit http://www.gcca.org/international/where-we-work-wflo/western-africa/ or contact Megan Costello, Vice President, Member & Industry Affairs, GCCA at +1 703 373 4300 ext. 201 or mcostello@gcca.org.

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WFLO delivers education and research to the industry and empowers economic development by strengthening the global cold chain. For more information, visit www.wflo.org. WFLO is a Core Partners of the Global Cold Chain Alliance, which represents all major industries engaged in temperature-controlled logistics. GCCA unites partners to be innovative leaders in the temperature-controlled products industry. For more information about GCCA, visit www.gcca.org.