Egypt: Keeping Tabs on Food

Globalization has done much to spice up the diets of consumers in the developed world

Restaurants featuring food from each corner of the globe have sprung up on every high-street, while open markets attract shoppers with a mysterious array of fruit and vegetables in different shapes and colours. They are finding their way onto Western dining tables and opening up exciting culinary horizons for consumers. While end-users and food-producers benefit from the impact of globalization on food availability, there is a growing preoccupation with food safety. Legislation to ensure food safety is in the interests both of the consumer and the supplier, anxious to export to European markets and beyond.

Egypt has excelled in growing vegetables since the time of the Pharoahs. Over three millenia later, the country still produces an impressive range of vegetables that are particularly popular in Europe. The agriculture sector accounts for over 20 per cent of Egyptian exports and employs 32 per cent of its working population. To ensure that Egyptian producers and exporters of agro-products can continue to market their produce abroad, the Ministry of Foreign Trade asked UNIDO to assist the Egyptian food industry to comply with new European Union standards on food safety and circulation. UNIDO was also requested to establish a traceability scheme (see box). Quality in the post harvest sector has always been crucial for the agro-industrial sector in Egypt. Cold chain, product processing, quality control and certification, accreditation of certification bodies and exports are currently the most important challenges the country and its companies are facing in order to maintain and expand their role as an international food supplier.

The ETRACE project approach has been to build local capacity, a great deal of attention was paid to training national experts so that they could help users in the development and implementation of traceability schemes. The focus of training has been to assist fresh produce exporting companies to adopt the procedures necessary to conform to international quality and safety standards and SPS requirements. The project has trained over 1,500 nationals, including 52 experts who were trained as trainers. It involved a large number of producers and exporters across the entire food chain, including producers from Upper Egypt who are engaged in safe agricultural production, as well as food transporters and various other service providers.

Training covered the following topics:

• Traceability: concepts and implementation;
• Practical implementation of the traceability manual;
• EU and international standards for fresh produce, quality, safety and traceability;
• Post-harvest handling for quality exports;
• Personal hygiene and working conditions;
• Food safety concepts (e.G. HACCP);
• ISO 22000 (training and implementation);
• Study tours to Italy and other EU countries.