DECISION ON FOOD SAFETY
Doc. EX.CL/631 (XVIII)
The Executive Council,
1. TAKES NOTE of the Report of the Conference of Ministers of Agriculture held in Lilongwe, Malawi from 28 to 29 October 2010 on Food Safety;
2. FURTHER TAKES NOTE of the Africa-European Union (EU) High Level Conference held in Brussels, Belgium from 18 to 19 November 2010 on Better Training for Safer Food (BTSF) and the conclusions of the 3rd Africa-EU Summit held in Tripoli, Great Libyan Arab Jamahiriya on 28 and 29 November 2010 regarding Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) issues and ENDORSES the Resolutions contained therein;
3. COMMENDS the African Union Commission and the EU Commission for their efforts geared towards the achievement of common principles and frameworks to improve food safety in Africa through the “Better Training for Safer Food (BTSF) Africa” programme within the context of the (SPS) agreement; and ENCOURAGES the two Commissions to further enhance their collaboration in this area;
4. ENDORSES the referential and Guide developed under the Africa-EU BTSF Africa program and the program for a Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) at the African Organization for Standardization (ARSO) and REQUESTS the Commission to step up efforts towards ensuring that food safety is treated as an integral component of food and nutrition security in Africa;
5. FURTHER REQUESTS the Commission to report regularly on the implementation of this Decision.