Language:
Knowledge Center
FES is a learning organization that leverages research and analysis to identify food systems constraints and develop practical approaches that businesses can adopt.
Feed the Future Business Drivers for Food Safety (BD4FS), funded by USAID and implemented by FES, is a multi-country (Senegal, Ethiopia, and Nepal) project that works alongside SMEs, or as they are referred to in the BD4FS project, “growing food businesses” (GFBs) to co-design and implement incentive-based strategies to accelerate the adoption of food safety practices in local food systems.
Feed the Future Business Drivers for Food Safety successfully addresses the lack of formal financing services available to SMEs by increasing the adoption of food safety practices at the SME level and building a culture of food safety. Through support to GFBs, BD4FS reduces their risk of food contamination and demonstrates that local food companies are good investment partners.
For Senegalese growing food businesses, a major roadblock to improving food safety and scaling up food processing is the lack of capital investment partners and affordable financial services. To address this challenge, FES partnered with Pangea Global Ventures through Feed the Future Business Drivers for Food Safety to launch a strategic endeavor to build momentum around accelerating formal investment in GFBs. As a result, four GFBs secured debt financing and equity investments ranging in size from $325,000 to USD $4.8 Million to grow their businesses. In total, the investments amounted to USD $5.8 Million.
To create a framework for sustained growth of Ethiopian food safety culture, Feed the Future Business Drivers for Food Safety formed a partnership with the Ethiopian Ministry of Trade and Regional Integration (MoTRI). In May of 2023, BD4FS signed an MOU with MoTRI for collaboration on improving food safety and quality of SMEs, and launched this partnership at a Food Safety Workshop in Addis Ababa on October 24, 2023.
To address the lack of food safety certifications available at the SME level and validate the implementation of project trainings, Feed the Future Business Drivers for Food Safety designed the BD4FS Pre-HACCP Validation Badge program. Working with growing food businesses (GFBs) interested in earning a Validation Badge, BD4FS held specialized trainings, offered technical assistance, and organized a professional food safety audit of 21 Senegalese GFBs.
Localization places the power of autonomy in the hands of local actors to strengthen local systems and ensure that interventions are responsive to such communities. By leveraging the knowledge, expertise, and realities of our partners on the ground, BD4FS supports local solutions to food safety through incentive-based strategies and accelerates the adoption of practices and technologies that can reduce the risk of foodborne hazards.
In BD4FS's sample, inclusive of Senegal, Ethiopia, and Nepal, women play key power roles in food safety as owners/operators, managers, and technical staff within GFBs. With high levels of education, training, and autonomy, women are driving forces in local food systems and have the capacity to transform, inspire, and pave the way for other businesses to improve their food safety management practices.
Post-farm gate food loss is oftentimes accompanied by food safety concerns, including inadequate food handling and packing, temperature control, hygiene, and physical, biological, and chemical contamination. While larger food companies may have resources dedicated to reducing this waste throughout the food chain, smaller enterprises have less access to technologies and capital to reduce waste.. To address this resource gap, the Feed the Future Business Drivers for Food Safety (BD4FS), funded by USAID and implemented by Food Enterprise Solutions (FES), helps businesses measure the amount of food loss and implement solutions to prevent further losses as part of a culture of food safety.
100 AFFORDABLE FOOD SAFETY
TECHNOLOGIES FOR
GROWING FOOD BUSINESSES
Micro, small, and medium-sized businesses in emerging economies face numerous challenges before they turn a profit. Financial barriers make it particularly difficult for businesses to consider and address food safety, food security, and food quality challenges. Yet very affordable technologies and practices exist that most companies can utilize without a major investment to improve their business operations and produce safer food for their clients. This 100 Affordable Food Safety Technologies for Growing Food Businesses manual was created for GFBs (growing food businesses) by Feed the Future Business Drivers for Food Safety (BD4FS), funded by USAID and implemented by Food Enterprise Solutions. This manual identifies affordable and readily available tools and techniques for safely processing, handling, transporting, and storing food that growing food businesses GFBs can adopt to protect consumers.
BD4FS initiated mSafeFood in Senegal during the COVID-19 pandemic when in-person encounters were limited. It emerged as an alternative way, along with online formal training, to remotely reach food system actors critical to ensuring that safer food reaches the end consumer. mSafeFood reaches food business owners and operators, frontline food handlers, and consumers with timely information through digital messaging and recorded content. Key food safety messages are distributed using interactive voice response (IVR) technology accessible through basic mobile phones as well as smartphones. By design, mSafeFood promotes user-driven food safety learning. These are offered at no cost to participants and are available in French and three other national languages – Wolof, Pulaar, and Serer. This report describes BD4FS development and implementation of mSafeFood to date and outlines future directions for this mobile learning platform.
The FAO estimates that around the world, about a third of food intended for human consumption is lost – over a billion tons of food, and $940 billion in economic losses annually. For growing food businesses (GFBs), adopting the appropriate set of food handling practices will improve food safety and contribute to a reduction in food loss. Feed the Future Business Drivers for Food Safety (BD4FS), funded by USAID and implemented by Food Enterprise Solutions, works with GFBs in Senegal, Nepal, and Ethiopia to adopt safe food handling practices and build a culture of food safety. By improving food safety management systems, businesses can also reduce food loss, thereby increasing revenue streams, gaining access to new markets, and improving nutrition content.
Feed the Future Business Drivers for Food Safety (BD4FS), funded by USAID and implemented by Food Enterprise Solutions (FES), uses an Ambassador firm approach to empower smallholder producers. An Ambassador firm is a business that has a branded product or products with a good local reputation, an established QMS (quality management system) and has either been certified or is working towards certification in food safety. These firms partnered with BD4FS to reach other small and medium growing food businesses (GFBs) that are part of their value chains. By providing food safety training to Ambassador firm suppliers, BD4FS enables small-scale food companies to meet quality standards and comply with food safety protocols. This approach positively impacts the entire value chain as other suppliers are motivated to adopt standards expected by Ambassador firms and other retailers with larger market access.
One of the challenges in this private sector approach is that GFBs often perceive that the adoption of postharvest food handling practices is too costly, that the return on investment is too far in the future and the benefits are not immediate. Therefore, unless buyers are willing to pay more for products resulting from improved practices — sorting, cool storage and increased sanitation — GFBs have reported to BD4FS that they feel it is not worth the effort or investment. Moving from perceptions of what the cost/benefit of changing postharvest food handling practices may be to the measurement and analysis of what they actually are is a key focus of this study. By helping GFBs to accurately document their degree of food loss, they will be able to calculate the cost/benefit relationship between changing practices and adopting technologies to significantly reduce food loss and waste (FLW).
Food Enterprise Solutions and the International Women's Coffee Alliance partner to foster empowerment and education for women who produce coffee. FES Principal Roberta Lauretti-Bernhard, along with some U.S. coffee experts, founded a "Learning Loan" program and authored a financial literacy manual targeted to women coffee professionals in coffee producing countries. Currently, the program partners/has partnered with IWCA chapters in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Colombia. This piece describes IWCA's founding and how FES continues to support equitable economic growth of women in the international coffee community.
BD4FS is proud to provide women agrifood professionals with training, technical support and assistance in creating business opportunities. One of BD4FS's partners, Ms. Nafissatou Diop, is an agrifood research engineer and entrepreneur working at Senegalese Food Technology Institute. She is the owner of Senfruits Processing Technology, a company that specializes in the processing of local agricultural product. Using her expertise as a food engineer Nafissatou invented a “de-pulping” machine for fruit processing. Through this technological innovation, Nafissatou and Senfruit have implemented an efficient processing method while maintaining a high standard of product integrity and safety.
Businesswomen are key actors in accelerating food safety and food systems strengthening - they are drivers for positive change in food safety practices and technologies. And, like any entrepreneur, they need equitable treatment under the law, access to finance, and access to services to build their capacity and gain market share. Business Drivers for Food Safety (BD4FS) offers food safety training, technical assistance, and B2B networking services to businesses working along supply chains for local markets, with 79% women participation in Senegal.
Food Enterprise Solutions, through Feed the Future project Business Drivers for Food Safety (BD4FS), actively promotes inclusion in local food systems by partnering with disabled food entrepreneurs. By holding food safety trainings, offering technical assistance, and providing business advice, BD4FS is creating opportunities in the agrifood sector for historically marginalized groups.
For Food Enterprise Solutions (FES), every day is a day to support persons with disabilities. But on December 3rd, 2022, FES joined with the international community to celebrate International Day of Persons with Disabilities with the theme “Transformative solutions for inclusive development: the role of innovation in fueling an accessible and equitable world.” BD4FS and the Women’s Committee of the Senegalese Federation of Associations of Disabled Persons co-organized four training sessions for over 200 disabled women entrepreneurs in the Senegalese food sector. The trainings were based on prerequisite programs (PRPs), which are the safety control measures, actions and procedures that must be performed to produce a product that meets consumer needs. BD4FS helped the women entrepreneurs to better understand the concept of food safety, hygiene and product quality, microorganisms and how they proliferate, and how to add value to local foods through more appropriate processing and preservation.
'The Feed the Future Business Drivers for Food Safety (BD4FS) project in Senegal has recognized LDB as a leading firm or “Ambassador” in the dairy value chain. An “Ambassador firm” is a well-established business that has a branded product or products with a good local reputation, an established QMS (quality management system) and has either been certified or is working towards certification. These firms help BD4FS facilitate access to small and medium growing food businesses (GFBs) who are part of their supply or value chain(s). The primary mission of LDB is to connect rural milk supply to growing demand in urban areas. Through its signature co-design process, BD4FS and LDB reviewed potential points of contamination in the dairy value chain and recognized that producers—at the beginning of the value chain—required training and technical assistance in safer food handling.
This case study provides examples of some of the experiences and challenges of implementing a business-to-business (B2B) approach that intentionally incorporates sustainable economic development principles.
We describe how FES supports women coffee producers through its programs and how Artisan, as a private sector actor in the coffee value chain, has managed the challenges of creating a sustainable supply relationship with women coffee co-operatives in Rwanda. Both companies address some of the broader challenges and opportunities associated with trading relationships and women’s economic empowerment. Some of the results of Artisan’s efforts are described, and recommendations for much-needed research validate the value of incorporating sustainable economic development principles in B2B relationships.
Artisan buys from about five Rwandan cooperatives, typically only buying from their women’s groups. In this case study, we focus on the B2B relationship between Artisan and Ejo Heza, the women’s group with parent cooperative, Kopakama. We chose to write about the relationship with Ejo Heza because this is Artisan’s longest relationship, having started in 2016, and Kopakama is one the oldest coffee cooperatives in Rwanda. The female farmers, prior to Artisan’s arrival, named themselves “Ejo Heza”, which means “bright tomorrow” in the local Kinyarwanda language. Thus, the B2B relationship between Artisan and Ejo Heza has a unique focus on gender.
In April 2021, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded Feed the Future Business Drivers for Food Safety (BD4FS) launched the Youth Food Safety Application Competition. The competition sought out young software developers to create innovating learning approaches about food safety, especially among young entrepreneurs. By developing smart phone applications, the competition aimed to assist small business owners to adopt safer food handling practices. BD4FS, implemented by Food Enterprise Solutions (FES), and its partner Feed the Future Youth in Agriculture (YiA), implemented by Virginia Tech University, worked with technical judges chosen from among Senegal’s finest professionals in the field. A total of 14 young developers entered the competition, from which 10 finalists were invited to pitch their concepts to the panelists.
Highlights:
-
The BD4FS Pre-HACCP Training Offer:19 PRPs in Two Parts
-
Upgrading Training for Agrifood Processing Actors
-
Launch of Food Safety Game-based Learning Mobile Apps
-
Testimonial from a GFB on Co-creation with BD4FS
BD4FS Senegal has partnered with local agribusiness actors to provide Pre-Haccp trainings that can prepare them for eventual certification, promote food safety financing, initiate a mobile platform for food safety learning, and help to organize a World Food Safety Day event. All activities are designed to support programmatic objectives by understanding basic local drivers for food safety, supporting GFB adoption of safer food handling, management practices, and preventative maintenance in accordance with government rules and regulations and international standards, and raising awareness among local businesses and consumers to promote a culture of food safety.
Senegalese consumers are increasingly oriented towards higher quality purchases across many sectors, and with this trend, processed poultry products are in high demand. Mrs. Fatim Basse - the founder of Gourméa, a company specializing in smoked poultry products - is aiming to meet this growing market demand. Gourméa has partnered with Feed the Future Business Drivers for Food Safety (BD4FS), funded by USAID and implemented by Food Enterprise Solutions (FES), to increase product safety and quality. This partnership approach allows BD4FS to tailor capacity building efforts to be relevant and applicable to the needs of Senegalese food businesses, according to the company's products and business objectives.
Like the other countries of the world, Senegal celebrated World Food Safety Day on Thursday, June 07, 2022, in the city of Saint Louis located 255 km from Dakar. The celebration was organized by the National Codex Alimentarius Committee in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, FAO, WHO and Feed the Future Business Drivers for Food Safety (BD4FS) - Senegal through popular gatherings and conference debates. The BD4FS Senegal Team was actively involved in the organization and facilitation of the various activities to mobilize action toward the 2022 goal of Safer Food, Better Health.
Food Enterprise Solutions recognizes that food safety is everyone’s business. And – that food safety is good for business! Today, June 7, 2022, we are celebrating Food Safety Day 2022 to highlight the exciting work that the Feed the Future Business Drivers for Safety (BD4FS) project is doing with growing food businesses in Senegal to promote safer food handling and ultimately more successful businesses.
Growing food businesses (GFBs) face various challenges to improve the quality and safety of their food products as they move through supply chains. The consequences of improper handling can be direct and severe, often manifested as an increased rejection of products in the marketplace, both local and export, which for a struggling GFB means reduced revenue and possible business failure. It can also pose a huge reputational risk to enterprises and mistrust of their products by consumers and partners. As consumer demand for safer foods increases, so does the business incentive to adopt best practices in food handling. Not only does improved food safety compliance protect consumers from foodborne illness, it also improves business competitiveness and growth. Hence, there is a tremendous demand by GFBs in Senegal for information and technical training to improve food handling practices. And, many of the promoted practices are low-cost and relatively simple to implement. Most importantly, businesses recognize the immediate benefits which this short video highlights. GFBs partnered with BD4FS appreciate completely that ‘food safety is good for business'.
Feed the Future Business Drivers for Food Safety (BD4FS), funded by USAID and implemented by Food Enterprise Solutions, helped build the capacity of Carvi Food to supply safe food products. BD4FS food safety experts trained Carvi Food employees and management on implementing Pre-Haccp prerequisite programs (PRPs). Resulting from this prerequisite training and implementation of the PRPs, Carvi demonstrated to Auchan that they could be a safe food supplier, thus winning a lucrative contract.
Carvi Food, founded and managed by Alimatou Zayda Diagne, a 26-year-old Senegalese woman, has just been approved by Auchan following a supplier audit. Carvi Food is the first Senegalese company to make and offer "Kilichi," a product that had previously been imported from Niger and South Africa. Kilichi is a dried meat with spices that is usually prepared at home during holidays following the traditions of Northern Senegal. Carvi offers its customers assorted flavors of kilichi in 30g and 100g packets at 1,000 and 3,000 FCFA (around US$ 1.70 and US$ 5.20). The chili, garlic, salt, and ginger flavored products are marketed on their website with home delivery service. With 10 full time employees, Carvi’s operations are expanding. Ms. Diagne estimates the Auchan contract will increase their annual sales by 100% (from US $30,000 to US $60,000). Carvi benefits from Auchan’s broad geographic network and its products will soon be available in major Senegalese cities beyond Dakar.
Feed the Future Business Drivers for Food Safety (BD4FS), implemented by Food Enterprise Solutions (FES) and funded by USAID, is a multicountry effort that works alongside agrifood actors to codesign and implement incentive-based strategies to accelerate the adoption of food safety practices in local food systems. To expand baseline knowledge of food safety practices in Senegal, BD4FS initiated a rapid market assessment utilizing a local network of experts and data collectors hired by Premise1, a company specializing in crowdsourcing data through mobile-app technology. Premise data contributors conducted a visual assessment of market characteristics, vendor food safety practices, and infrastructure conditions in 64 food markets across eight cities which aided BD4FS in understanding the principal issues around food hygiene and temperature control in Senegal. The primary objectives of this study were to identify local food markets in selected regions of Senegal and explore their food safety practices and challenges in three critical areas: 1) market demographics and physical characteristics, 2) food safety conditions and food quality at the individual retail locations, and 3) water and sanitation facilities available at the market.
Smoked fish is widely traded and consumed in the entire West African region and is even exported internationally. In Senegal, artisanally-caught fish is typically processed by women’s groups who use a variety of traditional processing techniques, most commonly smoking. Traditional smoking produces high levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) which are recognized as carcinogenic when consumed. Modern smoking ovens have been developed to reduce PAH levels in smoked fish; however, these improved methods have not been widely adopted in many regions.
To investigate this food safety concern, BD4FS initiated a series of studies on PAHs in Senegal: (1) an in depth literature review, (2) an ethnographic study among women fish processors to assess barriers to adopting improved ovens, and (3) a survey to understand consumer awareness and willingness to pay more for a safer product. Continue reading to learn about findings from these studies:
Safely managed water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services are essential for household health and equally critical for food businesses to reduce the incidence and transmission of foodborne diseases. The economic and health benefits of investing in water and sanitation are considerable. The estimated return on investment for every dollar spent is $4.3 USD – a gain achieved by reducing health care costs and improving workplace productivity.1 Investing in WASH also saves lives - diarrhea kills over 2,000 children per day globally, most preventable through improved WASH conditions.2 In Senegal alone, more than 40,000 deaths could be prevented annually through adequate WASH infrastructure and practice.
In March 2021, FES began implementing its private sector food safety strategy in Nepal through Feed the Future Business Drivers for Food Safety (BD4FS), a project co-created with and funded by USAID. While implementing the BD4FS “Food Safety Situational Analysis”, the COVID-19 pandemic took a sharp turn for the worse in Nepal, almost completely shutting down the food system. BD4FS developed and implemented a rapid survey of the COVID-19 impacts on food businesses to understand how and to what extent lockdown and prohibitory orders have impacted their key business parameters such as demand, sales, and costs.
Food safety is an integral part of growing food businesses, economic development, and public health. Food businesses, government, policy makers, and researchers all have different perspectives on promoters and barriers that affect food safety, and they provide important contributions to ensuring food safety practices occur in low- and middle-income (LMICs). In order to obtain insight on how to develop policies and programs that ensure food safety practices are present in LMICs, BD4FS conducted a rapid assessment with selected food safety experts.
Horticulture crops such as fruit and vegetables play a significant role in income generation and help to ensure nutritional security via small business activities for many countries in Africa and Asia (Demmler 2020). In the case of Ethiopia, Rwanda, Senegal, and Nepal, focal countries for Feed the Future Business Drivers for Food Safety (BD4FS), the majority of the population is directly or indirectly involved in agriculture. A Commodity System Assessment Methodology (CSAM) was undertaken in these countries, initiated by BD4FS and conducted by MarGEn, in recognition of the immediate necessity for interventions to reduce food losses and ensure food safety.
Horticulture crops are a good source to ensure nutritional security, and they also play a significant role in income generation by providing opportunity for a range of small business activities (Demmler, 2020). However, nutrient levels of fresh fruit and vegetables begin to decline gradually once harvested, due to their high water content (about 90%), contributing to deterioration and decay. The storage conditions and temperature management along the supply chain play a key role in preventing postharvest losses, and the cold chain management should start right from the time the produce is harvested.
Based upon the immediate necessity for interventions to reduce food losses and ensure food safety, Feed the Future Business Drivers for Food Safety (BD4FS), funded by USAID and implemented by Food Enterprise Solutions (FES), initiated research focused on Senegal, Nepal, Rwanda, and Ethiopia to be conducted by MARGEN. Considering the importance of crops with respect to consumption status, nutritional aspects, degree of postharvest loss, food safety issue and scope to the business opportunities, each country selected two important horticultural crops: Rwanda (Banana and Tomato), Ethiopia (Tomato and Mango), Nepal (Tomato and Apple), and Senegal (Tomato and Mango).
This Financial Landscape Analysis explored financial barriers faced by agribusiness in Senegal and avenues to make funding more accessible for investments in services such as cold chain logistics as part of a broader effort to improve food safety. The study focused on small- to medium-sized local food businesses in perishable foods sectors, referred to as growing food businesses (GFBs)1, and ensured the inclusion of women and young entrepreneurs.
Food safety losses are related to both physical and quality losses. The damage caused by unsafe handling practices can lead to both physical losses due to discarding product with insufficient cold storage, and to quality losses with associated loss of market value. Postharvest and food safety assessments were carried out using Commodity Systems Assessment Methodology (CSAM), which includes literature reviews, interviews and observations (LaGra et al 2016). Key informant interviews with experts, farmers, traders and extension workers in Ethiopia, Senegal, Rwanda and Nepal have revealed a wide range of food safety issues and associated SME business opportunities.
In Senegal, artisanal processing of seafood is the oldest form of seafood value addition. It remains a relatively simple means to preserve and sustain the share of artisanal and industrial production not consumed fresh. Artisanally processed products are an integral part of Senegalese cooking practices and therefore contribute to meeting protein demand. However, it is often considered a marginalized sector although of paramount importance. Notwithstanding, the sector is faced with major challenges compromising its development, including difficulties accessing water, sanitation and hygiene. This study reviews the conditions of access to water, hygiene and sanitation for women fish processors on ten processing sites in the regions of Dakar.
Au Sénégal, la transformation artisanale des produits de la mer est la forme de valorisation de produits de la pêche la plus ancienne. Elle s’impose comme moyen relativement simple pour conserver et reporter la partie de la production artisanale et industrielle qui n’a pas pu intégrer la consommation en frais. Les produits transformés artisanalement font partie intégrante des habitudes culinaires des sénégalais et par conséquent contribuent à la satisfaction de la demande en protéine.
Seafood is a critical source of nutrition in Senegal, especially among populations with low incomes. Post-catch processing, packaging, distribution and retailing are also a source of employment and income: in addition to fresh seafood sold near the point of catch, a significant amount gets processed (salted and smoked) and sold further inland and cross-border to neighboring countries. This important commodity for Senegal’s food security comes with important public health and food safety challenges. Many handling practices along the supply chain – cleaning, smoking, salting, drying, transporting and retailing – can contribute to loss of potential nutrients for consumers as well as losses of income and profit to businesses. In addition, poor food safety practices set the stage for transmission of food borne pathogens.
The current coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) is a fluid situation that is fueling a livelihoods crisis in both developed and emerging economies. Globally, consumers are concerned about the safety of their food and the risk of potential contamination. Though COVID-19 is a respiratory infection transmitted typically from person to person through direct contact, food systems are likely to be negatively impacted as they include human as well as surface transmission through critical actors including food producers, processors, transporters, warehouses, wholesale and retail food providers, and, of course, the consumer.
The term “productivity” in agriculture typically refers to the cost efficiency of crop yields per unit of land, or the ratio of outputs, or yields, to inputs. But with so much of the food produced being lost to spoilage or damage before it gets to consumers in developing economies, we need a new definition of productivity. We must focus on the whole system that moves food from the farm to the consumer.
Food safety is everyone’s business – and it’s the businesses that make up food systems that are the cornerstone for providing safe food. Today's food systems are increasingly more global, diverse and complex, involving an array of businesses from subsistence farming to multinational food companies. Everyone eats – therefore, everyone relies on local and global food systems. For World Food Safety Day, FES will describe four key focus areas of food safety: nutritional impact; the importance of post-harvest food management (PHFM); efficient logistics and cold chain; and affordable, accessible financing.
At this stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, its impact on the most vulnerable populations and on food supply chains has mushroomed into a global concern. Senegal is no exception. Food Enterprise Solutions (FES) is currently conducting a food safety situational analysis (FSSA) in Senegal through its USAID-funded Feed the Future initiative called Business Drivers for Food Safety (BD4FS) with the aim of identifying key barriers and opportunities to improving seafood safety practices.
Food loss and waste (FLW) reduction has proven to be an effective mechanism for food-based businesses to decrease their exposure to a variety of financial, supply chain, and regulatory risks. However, the value of investments in the middle part of the food supply chain among small-medium food enterprises is less clear compared to larger food businesses. To address this specific knowledge gap, BD4FS developed food loss protocols to help food businesses identify and track food loss to better understand how it affects their bottom line. This Technical Learning Note describes our experience in applying these protocols to real businesses in Senegal to assist them to reduce food loss through the adoption of better food handling practices. BD4FS works with private sector growing food businesses to understand the challenges and opportunities that will drive these businesses, especially financial costs and benefits, to reduce their postharvest losses.
Encouraging the private sector to embrace “a safer food culture” by imparting modern food safety standards, as outlined by Codex Alimentarius, contributes to ensuring that safe practices will have a positive impact on the health of consumers, as well as gaining market access by food companies. These measures, combined with other policies that encourage access to finance and capital investments, will help in creating a safer food system. Following Prerequisite Programs standards for sanitary food production, transportation, and processing, BD4FS develops trainings curriculums, tools and strategies for GFBs to implement food safety practices. While local enforcement may remain limited, GFBs can benefit from higher profits and greater market access by aligning with internationally recognized safety practices.
The BD4FS mission is to provide technical assistance and capacity building, develop best practices and lessons learned, and generate success for entrepreneurs working to improve food safety. BD4FS Tool and Practices is a collection of best practices developed to contribute to USAID’s knowledge base, strategies, and methodologies for business-level assistance in food systems.
To support the successful implementation of standardization in Senegalese agrifood production companies, the Senegalese Association of Standardization (ASN) has been established as a tool for the development of national standards and the promotion of quality and product certification. BD4FS held a training session on Senegalese national food safety regulations on November 17 and 18, 2021 to build capacity of local agribusinesses. The objective of this workshop was to enable managers of growing agribusinesses to understand the regulations and standards in force in the food sector and to be able to apply them to their professional environment.
Food Enterprise Solutions (FES) implements a private sector-driven food safety strategy in Nepal through Feed the Future Business Drivers for Food Safety (BD4FS), an economic development activity co -created with, and funded by, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). This food safety strategy is executed through a five-step D-5 approach, and the current report, the Nepal Food Safety Situational Analysis (FSSA), is part of the first Discovery step that will inform a subsequent Design step.
From March – July 2020, Feed the Future Business Drivers for Food Safety (BD4FS) carried out an assessment of conditions in Senegal that affect the ability of supply-chain actors – fisherfolk, fish processors, fishmongers, vendors, technology suppliers, and transporters – to adopt food safety practices. The initial focus for this Food Safety Situational Analysis (FSSA) was the artisanal fisheries sector, although some of our key findings also have relevance for other perishable food groups popular to Senegalese consumers. BD4FS will monitor the implementation, adoption, and outcomes of varying solutions to assess which have the greatest potential for impacting the development of food systems – by reducing loss and incidence of foodborne pathogens – that provide consumers with safe and nutritious food choices.
Local businesses within the food system – micro, small, and medium sized food enterprises (SMEs) – have the potential to substantially reduce contamination and spoilage by adopting better food safety standards and practices. FTF’s Business Drivers for Food Safety project (BD4FS) aims to strengthen capacities of these key actors and make them agents of positive change in the effort to reduce malnutrition, pre-consumer food loss, and overall hunger. BD4FS complements other Feed the Future programs through capacity building activities targeting SMEs in the food sector. With a goal of improving access of poorer consumers to safe, nutritious foods, the BD4FS approach includes strengthening formal sector SMEs as a strategic component of overall food systems development.