BY MBONO MDLULI
MBABANE – Minister of Health Mduduzi Matsebula calls for improved and sustained food safety in the country, so that people can live a long and healthy life.
Minister Matsebula said this yesterday (Wednesday, June 12, 2024) during the commemoration of World Food Safety Day, which was held in Mbabane. The event was also attended by other officials from relevant Government Ministries and parastatals such as the Ministry of Agriculture and the Eswatini Standards Authority (ESWASA).
During the event, Matsebula said food safety was one area which many people took for granted, yet it was integral to people’s lives. He said people had to eat every now and again in one day and they had to ensure that the food they ate was safe for their consumption. “The expectation is that the food is safe and we will not fall ill after consuming it. We can have food in abundance but it serves no purpose if the food is not safe for human consumption,” Matsebula said.
He said food safety was one of the most important thematic areas which cut across all spheres of people’s lives. “Food safety has to be practiced from farm to fork, which then involves the Ministry of Agriculture at the production stage and the Ministry of Health at the point of sale,” he said.
The minister said it was hard for him to imagine what could happen if food could be contaminated during production, considering that the country’s health system was overstretched. “We cannot be able to effectively handle such a situation and we do not want to experience it. Food safety is, therefore, an integral factor to ensure that the food we eat is safe for consumers,” he said.
If food was not handled in a safe manner, Matsebula said, it could also be another source of diarrhoea and other food related diseases. In view of that, it was important to emphasise on the five keys to safer food as had already been discussed as follows:
1. Keep clean;
2. Separate cooked and uncooked food;
3. Cook food properly;
4. Keep food at safe temperatures;
5. Use safe water and raw materials
