By: Sandally Sawo
The Food Safety and Quality Assurance Authority (FSQA) iscurrently struggling to make its presence felt across the country as the authority lacks the capacity to deploy adequate food inspectors in parts of the country, reliable sources informed The Voice.
The Gambia’s food regulatory agency is reportedly struggling with an acute human resource problem to adequately police the food market.
Concerned Gambians and consumer associations have sharplycriticized the FSQA for its perceived lack of strictness in reigning in the sale of expired foods as well as hygiene issues in eateries.
However, an FSQA official recently told this medium on condition of anonymity that the hue and cry over expired foods being sold at the markets was just a tempest in a kettle.
“What we know is that these food items sold at relatively cheap prices have nearly reached their sale-by-date and the owners just want to dispose them of. It happens even in supermarkets. Prices of goods in a supermarket could be beaten down if the owner believes that they may expire,” the official argued.
However, the public confidence in the State Food Regulatory Agency to robustly police the food market has been waning over the past few months.
The agency is also seen in many quarters as not sufficiently strict in monitoring hygiene at many of the food stalls and restaurants across the country.
“FSQA is hugely-challenged in terms of inspectors and thisreally makes our food inspection work unmanageable,” an official of FSQA, who preferred not to be named, admitted when phoned up by The Voice recently.