Mozambique

WHO Africa - Country Profile: http://www.afro.who.int/des/fos/country_profiles/mozambique.pdf
The main food safety and quality problems encountered with the country’s exports include the m icrobiological contamination of seafood. The mechanism for collection & dissemination of information about the export system is available . The food safety and quality problems encountered by the country’s import include high percentage of small scale importation by small traders and lack/or little food inspection and control at the border. However, the m echanism for monitoring food imports is available but is not effective. Food Laws and Implementing Authorities exist, which include Regulation of food inspection, Regulation on fish products and regulation on agricultural products. Though, there are shortcomings related to their implementation.
See also International Portal on Food Safety, Animal & Plant Health

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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 Mozambique, the Food Safety Unit is under the Department of Environmental Health within the Ministry of Health and is responsible for regulation, standards, etc. The main partners of the Ministry of Health in the area of food control are the Ministries of Agriculture, Commerce, Fisheries and the National Institute of Normalization and Quality.
Link: http://www.sarpn.org.za/documents/d0001653/P2002-FAO_WHO_food-safety_Oct2005.pdf

Document: Message from Mozambican Ministry of Health
Source: FAO/WHO Global Forum of Food Safety Regulators - 12 April 2005.
Extract: Regarding food safety, the Ministry of Health in Mozambique does the food control quality, monitoring and legislation, and at provincial levels the food control quality is done by the Provincial Directorate of Health through the Centre of Environmental Health, which also collaborates with the Municipalities. Under the Ministry of Health at central level the Department of environmental health is the leader of the programme, although there is another section under the community health which deals with nutrition issues. But we do coordinate.
Link: http://www.foodsafetyforum.org/global2/eforum/gf3_eforum-02.htm

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 Mozambique, the authorities responsible for controlling food quality and safety are the National Institute for Normalization and Quality which set standards, the Department of Plant Protection, and the Department of Public Health. These are under the ministries of Industry, Agriculture and the Ministry of Health respectively. This National Institute for Normalization and Quality is organized into Sectoral Technical Commissions which are split into Normalization Technical Commissions and working groups. The working groups develop draft standards, and these are subsequently submitted to the Sectoral Technical Commissions. However, the effective of the food safety control is faced with a number of constraints which need rectification so as to meet international standards. Among them include lack of appropriate infrastructure, the lack of trained personnel and the lack of efficient financing mechanisms, lack of appropriate legal framework. Some of the laws, however, need to be updated and new legislation and regulations need to be elaborated.
Link: http://www.unctad.org/en/docs/ditccom20052_en.pdf

2004

Document: Developing and Maintaining Food Safety control Systems for Africa, Current Status and Prospects for Change - by WHO Regional Office for Africa.
Source: Second FAO/WHO Global Forum of Food Safety Regulators - Bangkok , Thailand , 12-14 October 2004.
Extract: In Mozambique, the Food Safety Unit is under the Department of Environmental Health within the Ministry of Health and is responsible for regulation, standards etc. The main partners of the Ministry of Health in the area of food control are the Ministries of Agriculture, Commerce, Fisheries and the National Institute of Normalization and Quality.
Link: http://www.fao.org/docrep/meeting/008/ae144e/ae144e00.htm

2001

Document: Report of the Fourteenth Session of the Codex Coordinating Committee for Africa - Kampala , Uganda , 27 - 30 November 2000.
Source: Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme, Codex Alimentarius Commission, Twenty-Fourth Session - Geneva , 2 - 7 July 2001.
Extract: The Delegation of Mozambique informed the Committee that international support from FAO and WHO had enabled the training of inspectors in food safety control investigation. It also expressed the need for accreditation of national laboratories by internationally recognised organisations. The Codex Contact Point is in the Ministry of Health, Department of Environmental Health. The Codex Contact Point is responsible for distributing Codex texts, coordinating the activities of Codex within the country, and supporting the National Institute of Standardization and Quality in their work. In view of an earlier FAO TCP project to strengthen the food control system in the country and improve the capacity building in food control, the next step would be the creation of a National Codex Committee with members from the Ministries of Agriculture, Trade and Fisheries and from consumer organizations.
Link: http://www.fao.org/docrep/meeting/005/X9372E/x9372e09.htm#TopOfPage

Information last updated - 14 July 2006