How A Single Body Can Make Sas Food Safer

The deaths of 22 children due to foodborne illness in just two months exposed some serious flaws in South Africas food safety system.

Researchers say part of the problem is the lack of coordination across the nations sprawling multi-agency system and that part of the fix could be a single oversight body.

Following the listeriosis outbreak that killed 216 people between January 2017 and July 2018, the government said plans were in place to create a single food safety agency. But, six years later, not much progress has been made.

It was the deaths of Zinhle Maama, Isago Mabote, Njabulo Msimango, Katlego Olifant, Karabo Rampou and Monica Sebetwana that were the final straw. The children, all under the age of 9, died after eating a packet of chips tainted with a dangerous pesticide , which has since been found from three spaza shops not far from their home in Naledi, Soweto.

Their tragic deaths and the deaths of 16 other children and the nearly 900 people who were sickened from foodborne illnesses across the country over just two months sparked outrage and the declaration of a national disaster .

President Ramaphosa pulled together the departments of health, trade and industry, agriculture, basic education and small business development, as well as the police and military health services, National Consumer Commission and National Institute for Communicable Diseases. A ministerial task force rolled out plans for rodent infestation clean-ups, community education programmes and a major push for the registration of small businesses and spaza shops.

But the government response underscored the complex and sprawling, multi-agency way the nations food system is set up. Could part of the fix be a single food safety agency?