NPHIL wants food safety law

The Deputy Director General of newly created National Public Health Institute of Liberia (NPHIL) Dr. Masoka Fallah says Liberia needs food safety law, having recognized food to be an agent of disease and that people are interdependent.

Speaking over the weekend when government launched the National Codex Committee in Monrovia, Dr. Fallah said food is an agent of disease, urging the need for the setting up of surveillance to protect food here.

While emphasizing the goodness of food safety on account of adding value to what is eaten on a daily basis, Dr. Fallah reveals that the lack of proper measure in place to guide food products has over the pass time caused much sickness in Liberia.

At the NPHIL, he says the institution’s job is mainly focused on surveillance aimed at devel-op effective system to diagnose diseases, get to the source and mitigate the risk of spreading them to other parts of the country.

“Recently we had a joint operation to tackle food and water surveillance because they are agent of disease,” Dr. Fallah says.

He explains that the idea behind developing food and water surveillance system is to put Li-beria on path with other neighboring countries that have instituted some measures to protect their food products.

According to the NPHIL Deputy Director General, the issues of capacity building and infra-structure are also relevant, urging the the Ministry of Health, NPHIL, Commerce Ministry and others to form intercessory collaboration to address the issue of food safety.

He notes that the recent performance of these institutions and other stakeholders has made some gains, including the adoption of the Food Safety Act. Also speaking, UNAIDS Country Director Dr. Miriam Chipimo lashed at the Legislature here for not handling the issue of food safety with seriousness. She calls for serious national attention on food security, on grounds that Liberia’s neighbors do have these things in place.

By Lewis S. Teh–Edited by Winston W. Parley