Good agricultural practices produce safe, quality food, farmers told

By BRIAN OKINDA

An animal welfare organisation has called for proper handling of livestock and their products, noting that is vital to achieving food safety and controlling food-borne diseases.

World Animal Protection farming campaigns manager Dr Victor Yamo indicated that more than 200 diseases, ranging from diarrhoea to cancers, are caused by unsafe food containing harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites or chemical substances.

Dr Yamo added that $110 billion (Sh11 trillion) is annually lost in productivity and medical expenses resulting from unsafe foods, especially in low and middle-income countries.

He called for better management and care of livestock to improve productivity and food quality, thereby addressing food safety, nutritional deficiencies and ultimately food security.

Noting that food safety is a responsibility of governments, producers and consumers, Dr Yamo said everyone should participate in ensuring safety of food, adding that up to 600 million people around the world fall ill after eating contaminated food and 420,000 of them die every year.

“The government must ensure safe food for all. Producers should ensure they produce their products in a safe manner following safety requirements by adopting proper production systems and standards and consumers must interrogate the manner in which the food they buy for consumption is produced. Everyone needs to be part of the process to ensure safe and healthy food,” Dr Yamo said.

He maintained that food safety, nutrition and food security are all tied to each other since unsafe food creates a vicious cycle of diseases and malnutrition.

“Animal welfare standards are a prerequisite to enhancing business efficiency and profitability, satisfying international markets and meeting consumer expectations, especially at this time when consumers are taking a keen interest in the safety of animal products they consume,” he said, indicating that people are now willing to pay more if it means the food they buy is safe and free of chemicals and antibiotics.

Producers, for instance, he said, should strive to ensure good management standards of their animals and desist from masking their poor production systems by giving their livestock antibiotics.

“Constantly feeding animals on unsafe food and using antibiotics causes accumulation of the chemicals and microbes, which develop resistance to the antibiotics used. These in turn pose a threat to consumers of the animal products,” he said.

Dr Yamo noted that 80 per cent of the antibiotics given to livestock are unnecessary, the more reason why their use should be minimised.

“There are farmers who even go as far as adding some of these antibiotics in the milk they produce with the belief that they help in preservation,” he said.

Good water quality, proper animal feeds and good farming practices must be adhered to ensure food safety, he advised.