Ethiopian Food and Drug Authority

National and International standards on

food safety

Wendafrash Abera
Food Safety and Nutrition
UNICEF TA@ EFDA
March/2021
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 Outlines of the presentation
 Introduction
 Definition
 Why standardize?
 Level/type of standard
 How Ethiopian standard developed?
 International standards
 Implementation of standards
 Current ES and CES

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 Introduction
 Food safety standards refer to the formal documents containing
the requirements that foods or food processors have to comply
with to safeguard human health.
 They are implemented by institutions and enforced by law; and
are usually developed and published under the support of a
national standards body.
 Food safety standards and regulations are essential to ensure
food is safe at all points along supply chains in both international
trade and within nations.

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 Introduction
 Global agri-food trade has more than doubled since 1995
 Food safety is receiving heightened attention worldwide as the
important links between food and health are increasingly
recognized.
 An estimated 600 million people around the worled –almost 1 in 10
fall ill after eating contaminated food and 420,000 die every year.
 The global trade in food products in the last decade, reaching
US$1.7 trillion by 2015

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 What is standard?

• Standards define best practice in many different areas.

• Standards are agreed criteria designed to ensure that

products and services meet minimum thresholds

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 What are standards?
– A standard is a document established by CONSENSUS and approved by
recognized body, that provides, for COMMON AND REPEATED USE

– are created by bringing together the experience and expertise of all

interested parties such as the producers, sellers, buyers, users and
regulators of a particular material, product, process or service.

– help to create uniformity in various areas of social and economic

development.

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 Why standardize?

 To provide industry and users with the framework for

economies of design, greater product and service quality,
better production and delivery efficiency.

 To protect safety, health, environmental, and trade

malpractice

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 Avoid Improved
mistakes safety

Increased
Reduce
costs
Quality and safety productivity
standards

Sets
Enhance
minimum
customer
satisfaction quality

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 Food safety standards
 The food safety standards aim to lower the incidence of food-
borne illness.
 Food businesses to produce food that is safe and suitable to eat,
and also place health and hygiene obligations on food handlers.
 ISO 22000 is an internationally recognised standard that combines
the ISO9001 approach to food safety management and HACCP for
the assurance of food safety at all levels.

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 Importance of food standards
 Food standards are mandatory for international trade.
 Developing country exporters are penetrating the high
value food market and increasing their market share as well as
international competitiveness.
 It respond adequately to consumer concerns over quality and
safety.

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 Level and type of standards

• Four level of standards

Company Standard,
National Standard (ES)
Regional Standard
International Standards (codex )

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 Company standards

• Developed and implemented by consensuses of some group of

companies

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 National Standards

 National standard is a standard which only issued nationally by specific

country based on its economical and social development and will
implement /enforce nationally by the country

 Ethiopian Standard (ES)

 ESA is the an organization recognized to prepared approved and revised

national standards in the country

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 How Ethiopian standards are developed?
Principles
 Standardization is an act of simplification and aims at the
prevention of unnecessary complexity
 Should be based on general consensus and promoted by mutual
cooperation of all concerned.
 Must be implementable and be implemented
 Should be reviewed at regular intervals and revised as necessary.
 May be mandatory or voluntary application
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 Ethiopian Standard(ES) development stages
Stages 1 - Preliminary & Proposal Stages:

 Request received from government body, public or private industrial

firm, professional association or even from an individual.
 ESA conducts periodic surveys as a proactive means of assessing the
need for Ethiopian Standards

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 Stages 2 - Preparatory Stages:

• A Working Draft (WD) is prepared

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 Stages 3 & 4 - Committee & Enquiry Stages:

• reviews at the TC/subcommittee level,

• includes comments received from potential users/public

during the enquiry stage.

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 Technical committee (TC)
 are made up of experts from different Industry, government institution,
Professional Association, Academia, Public Sector, Regulatory Bodies,
Standard Users and other relevant sectors prepare Ethiopian Standards
jointly.

 97 Technical Committees

 over 80 subcommittees operate under these TCs

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 Stages 5 & 6 - Approval & Publication Stages:

• Approved by National council and

• publication as an Ethiopian Standard (ES).

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 Review Stage:

• An Ethiopian Standard after its publication must undergo a

mandatory periodical review at least every 5 years to keep it
up-to-date with current technological and other
developments.

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 Regional Standard

 ARSO- ARSO-862-2014-Fortified-cooking-oils-Specification.pdf
 EU - European Food Safety Regulation EU FSA_CB_EN.pdf
 Pacific-Asia Region in food Safety

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 International Standards
 ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is an independent,
non-governmental, international organization that develops standards to
ensure the quality, safety, and efficiency of products, services, and systems
 Countries through their representative with the majority vote prepare an
international standard.
 During preparation countries manly focused on the current countries
development position and also intended for facilitation of trade.

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 Accepted International standards

 CODEX standards,
 ISO
 TBT & SPS agreements,
 etc

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 CODEX Alimentarius
The most important global body for food standards is the Codex Alimentarius
Commission (CAC).
A code of international food standards to:
 guide and promote the elaboration of definitions and
requirements for foods and assist in their harmonization
 facilitate world trade
 promote consumer protection
countries can use as models in their domestic food legislation and regulations

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 CODEX Alimentarius
Since its inception in 1963, the CAC has produced:
 223 food safety standards
 78 food safety guidelines
 53 food safety codes of practice

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 CODEX Ethiopia (NCC)
 represent Ethiopia in Codex
 advice the Ethiopian Government in the work of the CODEX at
the national level.
 Issues and recommend the adoption of codex standards
including execution of awareness campaigns at various levels.

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 ISO Standards - (International Standard Organization)
– To ensure trade facilitation among countries
– To protect public , animal and environment health
– Specification, quality management etc

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 WTO TBT and SPS agreements

TBT - Technical Barriers to Trade agreements

– Seeks to ensure that technical regulations and analytical procedures do

not create unnecessary obstacles to trade.
– Prevent unjustified barriers to trade

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 SPS - sanitary and phytosanitary agreements

– to ensure that measures established by governments to protect human,

animal and plant life and health (in the agricultural sector only) are
consistent with requirements prohibiting arbitrary or unjustifiable
discrimination in trade between countries where the same conditions
prevail.

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 Implementation of standards

 Types of standards in ET
Voluntary Standards (ES) 1500
Mandatory Standards (CES) 253

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 Voluntary standard
These standards implemented by selected manufacturers or
institutions voluntarily giving into conceder the public health
and environment protection as well as facilitating trade
through them.

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 Mandatory Standards
 Voluntary standards implemented nationally in all manufactured or
imported products or services with out any demarcation in which the
standard should implement.
 A standard should be mandatory if and only if the product or service has
an influence on human or animal health and also on the environment too.

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 Currently approved ES and CES
..\List of selected CES .pdf

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 Standard marks

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To be a center of excellence in Africa to protect public health EFDA