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Guinea

General Information

• WHO Africa - Country Profile: http://www.afro.who.int/des/fos/country_profiles/guinea.pdf
• Mechanism for collection & dissemination of information a bout the export system is not available. The main food safety and quality problems encountered by the country’s import include contaminated products and old stocks. However, m echanisms for monitoring food imports are available. Food Laws and Implementing Authorities are in place, but c ontradictory regulatory texts; lack of coordination & harmonization; low dissemination of regulatory texts; texts do not adequately conform to regional and international standards. No consultations with Consumers or trade during preparation of the rules. However, the National food standards do not differ from Codex Standards.

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: Report of the Sixteenth Session of the FAO/WHO Coordinating Committee for Africa.
• Source: Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme, Codex Alimentarius Commission, Twenty-eighth Session, Italy , 4 – 9 July 2005.
• Extract: Activities for the promotion and control of food quality are poorly coordinated in Guinea as these are undertaken at different levels by several services and institutions that report to the different ministries and two private offices. Only the Technical Commission for Agricultural and Food Standards is able to provide a collective framework for all actors involved in elaborating food standards. A National Food Safety Commission has existed since 2003 but is not yet functional because of a lack of financial resources. Funds are available at the WHO Representation in Guinea for the establishment of a National Codex Committee. On the regulatory level, there is no law on the control of food products but there are texts with a regulatory function such as the law on standards and certification, the law on consumer protection and the law governing trade in basic commodities and merchandise. In order to render the promotion and control of food safety and quality more effective, Guinea requests FAO assistance in establishing a National Codex Committee and core legislation on food control and in bolstering laboratory capacity and equipment. The National Institute of Standardization and Metrology is the Codex Contact Point. This is where national public consultations are organized, in which two of the four consumer associations, ALCO and HYCOV, are actively involved. It is hoped that these two associations to receive FAO and WHO support so that they can become more effective.
• Link: http://www.codexalimentarius.net/download/report/632/al28_28e.pdf

• Document: Costs of Agri-Food Safety and SPS Compliance: United Republic Of Tanzania, Mozambique and Guinea: Tropical Fruits.
• Source: United Nations Conference on Trade and Development - Geneva.
• Extract: In Guinea, the key institutions responsible for the production and control of food quality and safety include the National Normalization Institute, the National Service for Quality Control and the Centre for the Support of Export Formalities, under the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and the Plant Protection Division and the National Laboratory of Plant Protection under the Ministry of Agriculture and Department of Food and Nutrition, Public Health Section of the Ministry of Health. Another important player is Agrimex, a consultancy company responsible for the implementation of the Pesticide Initiative Programme in Guinea. Other companies such as Bureau Veritas are involved in quality control of commodities such as coffee and cocoa. There is no coordinating organism for food safety control. There are no accredited laboratories in Guinea or laboratories with the capacity to perform pesticide residue analysis. The laboratory of the Centre for Environmental Research is the one closest to accreditation level, being the better equipped and staffed. Quality systems are being implemented to obtain certification for some of the methods. It also performs analytical work for several other institutions, including the National Service of Water Management, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Agriculture.
• Link: http://www.unctad.org/en/docs/ditccom20052_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, Twenty-sixth Session, 30 June – 5 July 2003.
• Extract: The activities related to food safety were in very early stages of development and needed to be strengthened especially in capacity building. The delegation of the Republic of Guinea noted that the support of FAO and WHO for its participation at 15 th Session of the Coordinating Committee for Africa was very useful in this regard.
• Link: http://www.codexalimentarius.net/download/report/407/Al03_28e.pdf

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