Food safety and quality management regulatory systems in Afghanistan: Policy gaps, governance and barriers to success

• Afghanistan is a country that still doesn't have an enacted food law.
• Food is controlled through a multi organizational approach.
• No foodborne disease surveillance and recall systems.
• Both institutional and human capacity to implement safety and quality management systems need to be enhanced.
• It is necessary to develop food law and have an independent authority to enforce the law and ensure safety of food.

Afghanistan has significant competitive advantages in agribusiness. Much has been said about Afghanistan's unrealized potential in this sector over the years and many specialists have highlighted challenges in infrastructure, access to finance, and inadequate legislation as barriers to growth in the sector. Many have also pointed to its potential productivity increase as a way to help alleviate food security issues. With adequate access to finance and infrastructure, Afghanistan should in theory be a top exporting country in all agricultural sectors. The potential also exists for Afghanistan to be a top exporter of high-margin products like fruits, meat, dairy and vegetable processing. In order to realize this potential, however, stronger food safety control needs to be in place to export to markets. In Afghanistan, food safety practices are still based on experiences from the late 1970s. Companies face constant pressure from the crisis, market competition from importing companies, pricing pressure from retailers, and seemingly endless inspections from government bodies. In fact, there are three main state agencies (Ministry of Public Health, Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock, and Municipalities) that regularly inspect food companies, often performing the same functions and loading these already cash-strapped enterprises with unneeded administrative burden. There are still important issues to be addressed within the food safety system of Afghanistan, such as: complete harmonization of legislation with the regional (legislation and standards mainly), improvement of coordination among authorities; ability to ensure impartiality of inspection work; thorough training of inspectors and implementation of skills, especially towards risk-based inspection control; reform of sampling schemes for food of non-animal origin and imported food commodities; strengthening surveillance of foodborne diseases, control of adulterated foods; and supporting the introduction of self-inspection systems based on HACCP principles and good hygienic practices.