School of Food Biosciences, The University of Reading, UK
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Ethiopia

General Information

• WHO Africa - Country Profile: http://afro.who.int/des/fos/country_profiles/ethiopia.pdf
• The main food safety and quality problems encountered with the country ’s exports by foreign buyers are that they require some tests that are not conducted in the national laboratories. Mechanism for collection and dissemination of information on the export system is available, though have some constraints such as inadequate inspection. Main food safety and quality problems encountered with the country’s imports are issuance of false health certificates; import of expiry food and poor labeling of food items. Mechanism for monitoring food imports is a vailable, the main constraints being that the department of rejection of imported food is not significant. Food Laws include the Public health regulation and veterinary health regulation which are implemented at Central level: (Mininistry of health; Ministry of Agriculture) and Provincial level (Regional health bureaus & Regional Agriculture bureau). Constraints to implementation are capacity (manpower & laboratories).

January 2007

• See JOINT FAO/WHO FOOD STANDARDS PROGRAMME FAO/WHO COORDINATING COMMITTEE FOR AFRICA, Seventeenth Session, Rabat, Morocco, 23-26 January 2007 "INFORMATION ON NATIONAL FOOD CONTROL SYSTEMS AND CONSUMER PARTICIPATION IN FOOD STANDARD SETTING" (CX/AFRICA 07/17/5): Reports from Ethiopia, Mali and Morocco. Available at: ftp://ftp.fao.org/codex/ccafrica17/ca17_05e.pdf

• See JOINT FAO/WHO FOOD STANDARDS PROGRAMME FAO/WHO COORDINATING COMMITTEE FOR AFRICA, Seventeenth Session, Rabat, Morocco, 23-26 January 2007 "INFORMATION ON THE USE OF CODEX STANDARDS AND RELATED TEXTS AT NATIONAL AND REGIONAL LEVELS" (CX/AFRICA 07/17/6): Reports from Ethiopia, Mali and Morocco. Available at: ftp://ftp.fao.org/codex/ccafrica17/ca17_06e.pdf

See also International Portal on Food Safety, Animal & Plant Health

Key Legal Documents

Links to Organisations involved in Food Law

Information (listed by date)

2005

• Document: International, Regional, Sub Regional and National Cooperation in Food Safety in Africa.
• Source: FAO/WHO Regional Conference on Food Safety for Africa, Zimbabwe , 3-6 October 2005 by WHO Regional Office for Africa, Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo.
• Extract: In Ethiopia, the lead government institutions responsible for food safety include the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Quality and Standards Authority of Ethiopia, Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Ethiopian Manufacturing Industries Association. These institutions work together in organizing training workshops, standard setting and drafting regulations. Since 2002, these bodies have established a Technical Committee that implements food safety assurance systems in accordance with the international market requirements, supported by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). However, coordination of activities at the lower level of the hierarchy remains to be established and strengthened. Responsibilities and mandates are not clearly defined, demarcated or streamlined, resulting in insufficient coordination of activities, duplication of efforts, misuse of human resources and wastage of meager financial resources allocated to the sectors. In order to overcome these problems, the existing Ethiopian Technical Committee has established the National Food Safety Council whose members are drawn from regulatory bodies, research institutes, industry, consumers and higher learning institutes involved in food safety.
• Link: http://www.sarpn.org.za/documents/d0001653/P2002-FAO_WHO_food-safety_Oct2005.pdf

• Document: National Food System in Ethiopia, A situation Analysis.
• Source: FAO/WHO Regional Conference on Food Safety for Africa, Harare , Zimbabwe , 3-6 October 2005.
• Extract: This paper describes the food control system in Ethiopia. By and large regulating food safety is a shared responsibility of Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture and Quality and the standard Authority of Ethiopia. Though there is no comprehensive food safety policy in the country, safeguarding the public from communicable and infectious diseases which equally applies to food safety is clearly addressed in different policies such as the National Health Policy that gives due emphasis in prevention and control of the major health problems of the country. The Government of Ethiopia has issued a Public Health Proclamation No. 200/2000 in which the issue of food safety is included in this proclamation. Based on this proclamation, a draft food safety regulation is completed and is awaiting endorsement by the Council of Ministers. Most Regional Health Bureaus have enacted their own regulations that fit their regional context based on the Public Health Proclamation. The Meat Inspection Amendment Proclamation No. 81/1976 provides for the control of slaughterhouses and establishments and ensuring safety of meat and meat products and Animal Diseases Prevention Control Proclamation No. 267/2002. Committees consisting of government representatives, food manufacturers and food traders, food scientists, food inspectors, medical and veterinary experts, consumers and other stakeholders make the standards. These standards can be company, national, regional, or international standards depending on the scope of their application. The Quality and Standard Authority of Ethiopia has developed about 450 foods related Ethiopian standards most of which have been implemented and have been made technical regulations by Regulation No. 13/ 1990.
• Link: ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/meeting/009/ae698e.pdf

• Document:Report of the Sixteenth Session of the FAO/WHO Coordinating Committee for Africa.
• Source: Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme Codex Alimentarius Commission, 4 – 9 July 2005.
• Extract: The Quality and Standards Authority of Ethiopia (QSAE) is the organ responsible for approving Ethiopian Standards (i.e. national standards). There are various regulatory bodies which enforce regulations associated with food safety. Some of them are the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture, Drug Administration and Control Authority and the Quality and the Standards Authority of Ethiopia. The food control activities are scattered among various regulatory bodies. The activities are not coordinated so as to give maximum benefit to the safety of consumers. The Codex activities in Ethiopia are undertaken by the National Codex Committee (NCC). The Committee (NCC) is composed of regulatory bodies, food producers, Chamber of Commerce, research organizations, professional associations and the National Standards Body. The Codex Contact Point is located in the Quality and Standards Authority of Ethiopia which is the secretariat of the Committee. Codex standards are used as references for adopting national standards and regarding food safety issues, concerned organizations in collaboration with the UNIDO, conduct awareness programmes each year on various themes. The expected objectives of the National Codex Committee are not realized because of various capacity limitations. Hence, Ethiopia would like to obtain assistance for strengthening the National Codex Committee and installing appropriate systems to selected testing laboratories including training of personnel in food safety fields. Ethiopia does not have a long history of consumer participation in food control activities. This is primarily associated with a low level of awareness of the consumer and few efforts made by the organizations, involved. Currently, efforts have been made to set up an organization which is linked to consumer groups. These groups are trying to establish a consumer association which will have a mandate on consumer affairs. The consumer rights protection organization is being represented currently in food safety activities at the national level but is not actively involved in the NCC.
• Link: http://www.codexalimentarius.net/download/report/632/al28_28e.pdf

• Document: Prospects and Challenges of Food Control System in Ethiopia- By: Ehnri
• Source: FAO/WHO Workshop on Effective Food Control Systems: Practical Approaches for the African Region, Italy, 24 January 2005.
• Extract: The food control system in Ethiopia is very little developed and is not able to support the production, supply and distribution of safe food to the local community and to the export market. It is also unable to protect largely the public from possible sources of foodborne diseases that could occur even to a failure to apply the well-known principles of food safety that have been established over many years, for instance, basic hygiene practices. This has been resulted in the proliferation and in nowadays foodborne diseases might most serious health problems in the country. Limited access to improved water source and improved sanitation facilities has aggravated the prevalence of communicable diseases. The 2003 World Development Indicators of the World Bank report has indicated that Ethiopia is among the last and the worst countries in the world as far as access to improved water and sanitation are concerned.
• Link: ftp://ftp.fao.org/es/esn/food/meetings/2005/italy_crd3_en.pdf

2003

• Document: Report of the Fifteenth Session of the FAO/WHO Coordinating Committee for Africa.
• Source: Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme Codex Alimentarius Commission, 30 June – 5 July 2003.
• Extract: Standards are the technical basis for Food Safety and Inspection Activities and the responsible organization for approving National Standards is the Quality and Standards Authority of Ethiopia (QSAE), which is operating for nearly 30 years. Currently about 60% of the approved standards fall under the Agriculture and Food Technology. For those standards that are technically regulated and QSAE has technical competence, food products are inspected and controlled through third party certification scheme. Various ministries like the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Health are engaged in regulatory activities. Various workshops and training on Food Safety and HACCP have been conducted by QSAE in collaboration with the UNIDO for experts working in food processing and regulatory activities and some food manufacturers implemented the HACCP system in their processes. The National Codex Contact Point is QSAE and it is now trying to formally establish the National Codex Coordinating Committee. The technical assistances that Ethiopia requires are: Establishment of Conformity Assessment system; Establishment of Food Safety Agency and Establishment and strengthening of the National Codex Committee. The Delegation informed the Committee that Consumer Protection Association was created only two years ago and still was in early stage of development, however the chamber of commerce and manufacturing industries, though they do not directly represent consumers, were involved in the work of standards setting, therefore there was a need for assistance from Consumers International in order to make sure that their voice was heard.
• Link: http://www.codexalimentarius.net/download/report/407/Al03_28e.pdf

Information last updated - February 2007