Servesafe Ensures Safety in School Feeding Programme, Says Odusanwo

Segun Awofadeji in Bauchi

In line with the desire of the present administration to empower a minimum of one million Nigerians annually with hospitality trade jobs in the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme, quality and safety of food service delivery must be ensured so that the feeding system will not be compromised in terms of nutritional values, safe consumption and good health of the benefiting pupils of the scheme.

The National President of the Institute for Tourism Professionals of Nigeria (ITPN), Chief Abiodun Odusanwo, who stated this during the Food Quality Assurance Supervision Training Programme for supervisors of the Home Grown School Feeding Programme in Abuja, further noted that this was to strengthen the skill levels of the public officers performing this important regulatory and enforcement role to reduce the incidents of food poisoning and food-borne illnesses in the implementation of the scheme.​

Odusanwo said the Servesafe initiative covering environmental and food safety was designed to create public awareness and safeguard against the dangers associated with food poisoning and contamination at premises where food is processed, cooked, served or handled. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​

According to him, the key challenges facing the enhancement of food safety in the country include a lack of awareness of the socio-economic importance of food safety, absence of adequate information on the incidence of food-borne disease outbreaks, lack of understanding of food safety and quality standards as outlined in international agreements and the inability to enforce compliance commensurate with the demands of enforcement of regulatory bodies, noting further that it is in response to these challenges that the Servesafe Quality Assurance training was organised. thanks