The principal food standard officer at the Director of Food Standard Unit of the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Momodou Lamin Nget, has described food safety as everybody?s concern and noted that it is as an integral part of food security.

This, he added, cannot be guaranteed without access to food both physically and economically. In the drive towards accessing food economically and physically, Nget went on, the government of The Gambia recently introduced the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) being implemented at all the levels of the national strata for development to reduce the level of poverty in the country. Nget made this remarks recently during an interview with the Daily Observer. He also spoke on government's "Back to the Land"  initiative, which according to him, when adhered to will enable physical access to food.  "In the drive to ensure the general well-being of its population in the area of food safety, the government of The Gambia swiftly responded to a proposal that was made by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and member states in the African region to come-up with a food-control legislation and came up with an Act to control the production, manufacture, sale, distribution, importation and exportation of foods cited as the Food Act of 2005," Nget remarked.

This Act, according to him, has outlined all stakeholders responsibilities avoiding overlaps. "The responsibility for the co-ordination of this Act is vested on the National Nutritional Agency (NaNA), under the auspices of the Office of the Vice President," he stated.  Out of the 45 countries in the region, Nget revealed, only 13 countries including The Gambia, have responded to the proposal.  "The government of The Gambia under the foresight leadership of His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr Yahya Jammeh, has instituted a special Directorate of Food Safety called: Food Safety, Quality, and Hygiene Enforcement, replacing the former Food Hygiene and Safety Unit to further broaden the unit to enable it take the challenges of contemporary issues on food safety," he explained.  
He further said that the newly established directorate, headed by Omar Njie, is envisaged in the directorate to well-equipped laboratory for the microbial and chemical testing of food using all parameters and also the testing of genetically modified foods, adequate and well trained highly motivated man-power financially.

"The ministry of Health and Social Welfare has established links with sister countries in the region who have international accredited laboratories for the testing of any suspected food.  This will be the case until such a time that we have a fully equipped and functional laboratory," he stated. All these efforts, he observed, are being done by government to reduce the burden caused by water and food-borne diseases, which he said if not addressed, will impact seriously on all national development issues. He then used the opportunity to call on all and sundry to join hands in this very important venture, reiterating that "food safety is everybody's concern" in the efforts to ensure that the country is free of water food-borne diseases.