Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS)

Welcome to this special article of World Food Safety Day to show the great strides made by Tanzania Bureau of Standard (TBS) on protecting the consumer from food risk when the World marks 5^th anniversary of World Food Safety Day on 07 June 2022.

The WHO established World Food Safety Day in 2018 to raise awareness of Food Safety issues. Year after year we see a growing number of World Food Safety Day initiatives that help increase the public's awareness of food safety, which is a great achievement. We need to continue our work together, to ensure that this trend continues and invite everyone to join us in this campaign.

TBS acknowledges the great strides that has made in effectively protecting the public from food risks and promoting public health which are once again gearing up to replicate, maintain and sustain. While conducting this article the Agency acknowledges that there are still many challenges which need to be continually addressed, so as to remain competent and relevant to serve the people of Tanzania and the World at large as a matter of course. It is also an occasion for the Agency to commit itself to dealing with new challenges brought about by globalization, trade liberalization, climate change and technological advancement but also to respond to the factors which dictates the market forces in free market economy.

The theme is a self-explanatory to the responsibilities of the Agency on human health protection with regard to availability of safety food products in the market. Safe food is one of the most critical guarantors for good health. Unsafe foods are the cause of many diseases and contribute to other poor health conditions, such as impaired growth and development, micronutrient deficiencies, communicable diseases and mental illness. For four years back since TBS took the full mandate and responsibilities on food safety in Tanzania has done the tremendous progress on food safety control mechanism and food risk management through food inspection at abroad, at port of entries, on post market inspection and laboratory analysis. The Agency also has been conducting other operations of food safety control system and food risk management system including food inspection on mass catering, food inspection on hotels, food inspection on small and large scale foodprocessing industries to make sure that, consumers are protected from food risks.

As the theme says “Safer Food Better Life this should be a global campaign which stresses the need to transform food systems to deliver better health in a sustainable manner in order to prevent most foodborne diseases. Food systems policy-makers, practitioners and investors are invited to reorient their activities to increase the sustainable production and consumption of safe foods in order to improve health outcomes. It sends the strong message the food regulators and all stakeholders that have responsible for the health of people because the challenges of food in the food chain around the global are threatening the health of people every now and then while facing of advanced food technology, modern agricultural practices, genetically modified food materials, human misconducts, climate change, trade liberalization and globalization.

On this matter the Agency reiterates its commitment to ensuring that the general public does consume food products that are manufactured and supplied in compliance with Food Safety management through Standard Act (Cap 130) and its amendment as per Finance Bill 2017. This day also reflects the gaps and area which needs intervention to make TBS more efficacious in providing services of the highest possible standards of quality that would reflect the semi - industrialized, middle income economy envisaged in Tanzania’s National Development Vision of 2025 and related to Development Plans.

This occasion also is an opportunity for TBS to highlight the great strides that have been made through itsMission which isto provide andpromotestandardization ,quality assurance and metrology services for suitablesocio - economic developmentand it’s Visionbeinga center of excellence in standardization, quality assurance and metrology in Africa whileimplementingquality policywhichendeavors as mandated to deliver quality products and services includingstandardization,safety,conformity assessment and metrology services by meeting and even exceeding customers’ and legal requirements so as to retain their loyalty.

• The importance of risk management for an Organization like TBS

Risk management is an increasing important business challenges and stakeholders have become much more concerned about risk management. It may be a driver of strategic decisions or may it be a cause of uncertainty in the organization or simply be embedded in the activities of the organization. An enterprise of wide approach to risk management enables an organization to consider the potential impact of all types of risk on all processes activities, stakeholders, products and services. Implementing a compressive approach to risk managementwill result in an organization benefiting from what is often referred to as the upside of risk .Enterprise risk management isa strategic business discipline that support the achievement of an organization’s objectives by addressing the full spectrum of its risk and managing the combined impact of those risks as an interrelated risk portfolio .Studies shows that risk management is a central part of the strategic management of any organization .Risk management is the process whereby organization methodically address the risk attached to their activities .

A successful risk management initiative should be proportionate to the level of risk in the organization, aligned with other Agency activities, comprehensive in its scope, embedded into routine activities and dynamic by being responsive to changing circumstances. The management of business entities, the focus of risk management is to make assessment of significant risks and the implementation of suitable risk responses with objective of achieving maximum sustainable value from all the activities of the organization. The management will needs to enhance the understanding of the potential upside and downside of the factors that can affect an organization. This will save time and helps in increasing the probability of success and reduces both the probability of failure and the level of uncertainty associated with achieving the objective of the organization. It should have observed that, for all types of organizations, there is a need to understand the risks being taken when seeking to achieve objective and attain the derided level of reward. Organization need to understand the overall level of risk embedded within their process and activities. It is important for organization to recognize and priorities significant risks and identifies the weakest critical control points. When setting out to improve risk management performance, the expected benefits of the risk management initiative should be established in advance. The outputs from successful risk management include compliance, assurance and enhance decision making. These outputs will provide benefits by way of improvements in the efficiency of operations, effectiveness of tactics and the efficacy of the strategy of the organization.

• Food inspection as a control mechanism of food risk management

An inspection system is fundamentally important function of organization and used as a means of food control mechanism and food risk management. Inspections may be focused on the products processes or facilities, auditing of systems and examinations. Taking into consideration the importance of enhancing quality and safety of imported or exported foods, the Agency has developed the guidelines with the objectives of enhancing effective enforcement of the Food Safety managementthrough standardAct (Cap130) and its amendment as per Finance Bill 2019 and regulations relevant to import and export control of foods by (i) assisting food importers and exporters to comply with the requirements of the legislation.(ii) to guide law enforcers on the requirements for importation and exportation so thatenforcement is carried out in the right manner.

The Agency is very optimistic that use of these guidelines will enable provision timely and quality service and provide conducive environment for effective and efficient food import and export control as well as food risk management. The specific objectives of this guideline are:-(i) protection of life and health of the consuming public by ensuring:(a)that food products imported into the country are safe, of good quality and are of good nutritive value and risk free (b) that food produced in the country are in compliance with existing national legislation, or in the absence of these, thatit complieswith relevant international standards such as those elaborated by Codex Almentarious Commission or other recognized international standardizing organizations.(c) that food products destined to be exported from thecountry must meet specified requirements of the importing country by (i) ensuring fair practices in the food trade by (a) protecting the consumer from force and unjustifiable claims and advertisement of food,(b) preventing /minimizing fraudulent practices in the food trade.(ii) aim of export certification of food.(a) to assist health authorities, to address the issuing of health certificates in a systematic and internationally acceptable manner.(b) to assist prospective exporters, (manufacturers or their agents),of food staffs with information’s related to the insuring of health certificates and how, among others, to obtain such certificates.(c) to ensure uniformity regarding the insuring of health certificates on national and international standards set. (d) to provide information on other role players involved in the certification of food stuffs related to matters other than health, as well as examples of documents related certificates for utilization by health authorities.

The auditing of systems and examinations is fromimportation procedure for food products starting from those authorized importers of food in the country and are falling under the following categories:-(i) government and non-government organizations such as world food programme (ii) food dealers (wholesalers and retailers) with valid license (iii) food manufactures with valid license (iv) donations (v) person authorized to import food for personal use.(vi) individuals/ institutions authorized to conduct nutritional researches.

The specific requirements for importers on importation are:-(i)government and NGOs be required to submit relevant documents for justification.(ii) food dealers shall be registered as food importers and must have suitable and registered premises to stock such particular food product and valid license issued by TBS.(iii) food manufacturers must have valid manufacturing license and registered as food importers (iv) donations of countries, faith based organization or individual must be fit for human consumption, safe and of good quality not prohibited from the country of origin attached with relevant documents to justify that the products are not meant for commercial purpose.(v) individual authorized to import food for personal use must submit relevant documents to justify that the products are not meant for commercial purpose.(vi) individuals/institutions authorized to conduct nutritional researchers (clinical trials) must submit relevant documents approved by Ethical Committee of The Ministry concerned .

The procedure for processing import application require that, any person who intends to import food in to the country must apply for registration as food importer to the Director General of TBS in a prescribed form. The application shall be accompanied by fee as prescribed under fees and chargers regulations and TBS upon receiving applications shall issue a food importer registration certificate to applicant which is valid for one year. The application for import permit needs to be accompanied with important documents such as commercial invoice from the supplier, certificate of analysis/health certificate (certificate of conformance), and phytosanitary certificates (in case of importation of unprocessed cereal and plant origin product, radiation free certificate, applicable, zoo sanitary certificate (in case of unprocessed animal origin products.

The Director General, upon receiving applications for import permit and other supporting documents as specified above, examine the applications to authentify whether the applicant is registered as food importer, examine the proforma invoice to ensure that the food and food supplements intended to be imported are those granted marketing authorization (registered) by the TBS, calculate the applicable and statutory fees of goods to be imported to be payable to the government , after completion of above scrutinization and if satisfied with the submitted data, the commercial invoice should be signed ,after completion of above process the import permit is issued.

The importation of food in Tanzania is accompanied by terms and conditions for importer toagree on themsuch as (i) food authorized for importation shall be only be;(a) Pre- packaged food and food supplements that are registered by the authority,(b)non-prepackage/and non-registrable food which comply with the specifications and /or requirements prescribed by the authority.(c) food which has not been banned in the country of origin,(ii)import permit shall not be transferable and shall be issued to cover only one food consignment to be imported,(iii) approved commercial invoice and import permit shall be valid for 6 months from the date of approval,(iv) imported food product shall have at least a shelf life of 6 months remained before entry at port of entry or those products with shelf life 9 months or more,(v)The importer shall be responsible for recall/ withdraw of product from the market once it is proven to cause health hazards to consumers.

The government has set its procedures for inspection of goods at the port of entry. It has entrusted COTECNA/TISCAN to conduct shipment inspection of all consignment imported through designed ports of entry under the destination inspection scheme. Each imported food consignment shall be inspected or examined by the food inspector before being removed out of the customs area to ensure that it meets the following requirements; Presence of valid documents such as health certificate issued by the competent authority in the country of origin, TBS approved profoma invoice/import permit, parking list and bill of lading/airway bill, Fulfils labeling requirements such as primary packaging of food imported shall be clearly, labeled in English or Kiswahili or both and shall include the important information such, trade and common names, ingredients/ compositions in case for food supplements, date of manufacture and expiry, batch or lot number, any special storage conditions, name and address of manufacturer,(i) food products with labels, which show evidence of alteration, will be regarded as substandard and shall be condemned. Such alterations shall include; entire label or parts with details such as batch numbers, dates of manufacture and expiry cut off, evidence of labels being removed or new ones attached or new labels being passed over old ones, details or being erased or painted out and replaced with new details, counterfeiting, (ii)the primary package shall be sealed in such a way that the product cannot be reached or tempered without damaging the seal.

Once satisfied that all importation conditions of food consignment have been fulfilled the requirements the food inspectors release the consignments and stamp the file with release order. Sometimes sample of food products have to be taken at the port of entries for the purpose of ensuring compliance, food inspector shall be obliged to take sample of food whenever deemed necessary, for analysis or for other examination in the following conditions;(i) routine samples, such consignment shall be released to the importer with no halt of sales, (ii) suspicious consignment in which sample was taken for analysis shall remain under customs control pending analysis result.

For food consignment of export the Authority issuesa health certificate if it is satisfied that, (i) the food has been registered and manufactured under license issued by it or the food consignment has been inspected and found in compliance with specifications described by it,(ii)for company /individuals intending to export, inspection and sampling of the consignment to be exported shall be done by an inspector prior issuing of health certificate on which the samples shall be analyzed under exporters cost,(iii)The food does not contravene any provision of Food Safety Managementthrough standard Act (Cap130) and its amendment as per Finance Bill 2019 or importation and exportation of food regulations.Howerver the food that shall not be exported if the consignment previously imported as donations or for training/research or forindividual/personal use shall not be re-exported. Certification of food for export is normally done when necessary or upon request from an exporter or importing country. The authority shall issue health certificate to accompany with food permit for export of two categories of exporters which are (i) registered local food manufactures. (ii) company /individuals issued with an export permit by TBS.

Confiscating excesses for food consignments which do not meet specified requirements of quality are conducted at the port of entry for example food and food supplements with doubt of quality must be condemned or be re-exported to a third country on special request and with special request and with special clearance from the food authority of the country where the consignment is being exported and are export exercise is being preceded by re-inspection of the rejected consignment to confirm that it is still intact before re-export permit is issued by TBS and the reloading for re-export is being done of witnessed by customs officials and Food Inspector(s) of the TBS and other government institutions, the copies of re-export documents stamped at the exits port is submitted to the TBS as evidence of exportation exercise, the destruction of rejected foodis done as per customs requirements and TBS provides technical advice on mode of destruction, the food inspectors, customs officials and other representative from other relevant government institutions form a jointly supervise on the destruction consignments, and after completion of destruction ,TBS issues a destruction certificate to the importer and where the consignment is detained it issues a detention form of food consignment(s) stating clearly the reason(s) for detention.

Agency has relentlessly been confiscating and destroying, confiscating and sending back the consignment to the country of origin, that do not meet the statutorily prescribed quality and safety standards and doing so before they a circulated in the market. In that regard, the Agency has good reason to applaud for its efficient and effective routine inspections as imbedded in its fail- safe import and export control systems. The Agency pledges to maintain efficient services delivery in line with quality services standards as stipulated in its client’s services charter. Indeed, it is through adhering to such standards that we can efficaciously meet public health needs and expectations. However, it is humbly expresses gratitude to the government, development partners and other international organizations, as well as other stakeholders and Tanzanians in general for continued giving cooperation and support in the areas of food quality, food safety and effectiveness of food products as it issuggesting that, without such cooperation and support, the agency would not have made such great strides in only four years of its operations. The Agency is where it is today because it has unstintingly cooperated and supported all the way.