Better lives through
livestock
Technical and socio-cultural continuum in
food safety management in informal markets:
An example from resource-poor settings
Kebede Amenu1, Silvia Alonso1, Theodore Knight-Jones1, Gemma Tacken2 and Delia Grace1,3
1International Livestock Research Institute
2Wageningen University & Research
3University of Greenwich
2022 annual meeting of the International Association for Food Protection
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 31 July–3 August 2022

2
Contents of the presentation
 Food systems: formal versus informal markets
 Social-cultural and technical aspects of food safety
management
 Research for actions: case studies towards
improving food safety
 High-level food safety policy and strategy, Africa as
an example

Food systems: factors affecting
• Rapid population growth, urbanization and rising incomes
• Increasing demand for vegetables, livestock based and processed
foods = riskiest from a food
• Gradual changes from traditional to ‘modern’ (formal)
systems along continuum of food value chains, mixed food
markets; still informal systems dominant
• perspective!
https://www.statista.com/statistics/270860/urbanization-by-continent/

Diverse food systems:
Relative formality of markets
Totally informal Home grown production
Semi-informal
Micro-retailers
Unofficial markets
Intermediate
Stores
Official markets
Formal
Supermarkets
Grocery chain stores
Balineau, G., Bauer, A., Kessler, M., & Madariaga, N. (2021). Food Systems in
Africa: Rethinking the Role of Markets. World Bank Publications.
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/34919/978146481
5881.pdf

Informal food markets
• Informal or traditional markets sell more
than 85% of the food, consumed in sub-
Saharan Africa, an example
• The informal market is non-transparent
(e.g., no food labels, no standards, less
regular law enforcements [only abrupt
shutting down])
• The food handling environment is
unhygienic, potential food safety risk
https://cgspace.cgiar.org/handle/10568/42438

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+Informal market
• Informal markets are important for food
and job security.
• Informal markets are not necessarily
dangerous and formal markets are not
necessarily safe.
• Hazards do not always translate into risks.
• Participation can improve food safety.
• Farmers, traders and retailers are risk
managers.
• Understanding values and culture is
crucial for food safety management.

Formal
• Long and complex
supply chain with many
different suppliers,
actors with greater
dependency on
infrastructure and
technology high
chance of system
failure
• The formal system is
not a guarantee to
make foods safe
Credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann

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Technical and Socio-cultural aspects in making food
safer
• General infrastructure (water,
electricity, road)
• Equipment and utensils
• Food establishment set-up and
facilities
• Knowledge
• Attitude
• Practices
• Beliefs/customs
• Governance (legal,
regulatory)
Technical aspects Socio-cultural and legal situations
Barriers OR facilitators to a safer
foods in informal market

Food safety Interventions towards improving: Socio-
cultural and technical perspectives

10
Introducing stainless steel for traditional milk
fermentation
Women in Borana pastoral area
(southern Ethiopia) involved in
participatory experiment
In addition to lab analysis, the social
acceptability of using stainless steel
containers as storage during
traditional milk fermentation was
assessed
Ititu (fermented milk)
in Gorfa (traditional
container)

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Social/cultural
• Though cleaning the stainless-
steel container is easier:
• Traditional containers have a
cultural role (e.g. for decoration),
stainless steel not
• Making traditional containers
empowers women
• The yoghurt milk ferments
quickly with yoghurt having “dry
texture
• No desirable odor/flavor after in
smoked yoghurt

12
Risky Milk Consumption
High raw milk consumption:
-the perception that “boiling of milk destroys vitamins”,
-“boiled milk is considered dead” to mean boiling of milk
extremely reduces the nutritional contents of milk

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Integrating natural and social sciences concepts
for food safety
management
Source: Fischer et al. (2005). Risk Analysis, 25(3), 503-517.

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Small ruminant meat carcass hygiene improvement
through training
• Change in knowledge, attitude and practice after the training
• Assessment after five years of implementation of the training:
• Carcass hygiene improvement through abattoir workers training in
Ethiopia: Facilitators and barriers for a longer-term positive impact
• Sustained carcass hygiene improvements may not be achieved
through “one-off training” due to other bottlenecks (technical
aspects)

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Improve the supply of safe food: Integrated approach
Interventions successful in short term
Long term, wide-reaching impacts likely
requires:
• Training & technology
• Incentives
• Enabling environment

Urban food markets in Africa:
Incentivizing food safety using a pull-
push approach
Chicken and vegetables in Ethiopia and Burkina Faso

Pull approach (demand for safe food) Push approach (supply of safe food)
Reduced burden FBD, professionalizing
informal sector, appropriate governance
ENABLING
ENVIRONMENT
Consumers recognize &
demand safer food
VC actors respond to
demand & incentives
Inform, monitor &
legitimize VC actors
(Primary Outcome 2)
Build capacity &
motivation of regulators
(Primary Outcome 1)
Consumer campaign for
empowered consumers
(Primary Outcome 3)
Gather baseline information for detailed intervention planning and advocacy
Key
innovation
Proposed approach: Pull-push approach
Chicken and vegetable

Project Working packages
• WP1: Estimating burden and cost of foodborne illness
• WP2: Understanding poultry meat and
vegetable value chains
• WP3: QMRA and cost-effectiveness analysis of candidate
interventions
• WP4: Build capacity and motivation of regulators to manage food
safety
• WP5: Empower value chain actors
to manage food safety
• WP6: Design and implement
a consumer campaign
• WP7: Impact assessment

Consumer communication campaign
TV and radio
(influencers),
jingle
Harar and Dire Dawa in Ethiopia: Multi-lingual
community

Consumer communication campaign
• Billboard and
posters

Consumer communication campaign
Door-to-door campaign

African level: food safety policy,
strategy and advocacy

African Food safety Index (AFSI)
• Legal framework
• Surveillance programs
• Laboratory
infrastructure
• Foodborne diarrheal disease
• FBD-related child death
• Prevalence aflatoxin-related
liver cancer
• Export rejections
(foodborne hazards)
Food safety systems index
(FSSI)
Food safety health index
(FSHI)
Food safety trade index
(FSTI)
AFSI

Conference of African Continental Association of Food Protection

Final remark
Evidence for actions
Sustainable positive impacts
Strategies for engaging
stakeholders
Food safety is
complex and
involve multi-
stakeholders and
institutions
Coordinated efforts
are needed
Citation: Amenu K, Alonso S, Knight – Jones T, Tacken G, Grace D. 2022. Technical and Socio-Cultural Continuum in Food
Safety Management in Informal Markets: An Example from Resource-Poor Settings. Oral Symposium Presentation at the Annual
Conference of the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) July 31-August 2022, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.

Specifically: International Association for Food
Protection (IAFP)

Thank you!
Ethiopia Consortium: ILRI, Addis Ababa University, Haramaya University, Wageningen
University and Research , University of Florida, WorldVeg
Pull-push Project

Disclaimer
The slides used in the presentation were obtained from a study
generously supported by the American people through the United
States Agency for International Development (USAID) and its Feed the
Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems managed by the
of Florida and the International Livestock Research Institute. The
contents are the responsibility of the University of Florida and do not
necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States
Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems
Department of Animal Sciences | University of Florida | P
.O. Box 110910 | Gainesville, FL 32611
livestock-lab@ufl.edu | http://livestocklab.ifas.ufl.edu/
Milk Hygiene Project