The draft of the Food Safety Bill has been completed and is currently being reviewed by Agriculture Minister, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy before submission to Cabinet for its approval.

This was disclosed by the minister during a recent interview at his ministry’s Regent Road, Georgetown boardroom, when he confirmed that the Bill has been finally completed.
He said that once the Bill acquires Cabinet’s approval, it will be taken to parliament to be passed into law.
At a previous forum, Dr. Ramsammy had explained that the Food Safety Bill seeks to establish an agency which will ensure the regulation of the food industry and guarantee safety from the farm to the consumer.
He had stated that an important component of the Bill is that it will not allow any product produced locally to be marketed and sold if it is not first certified by the Food and Drug Analyst (FDA) Department, in order to ensure maximum safety.
Meanwhile, the introduction of this Bill is in fulfilment of the objectives outlined in the National Food and Nutrition Security Strategy, which was introduced by the Ministry of Agriculture in 2001.
Dr. Ramsammy stated that this strategy has three main components: food security, that is ensuring that there is enough food to feed the population; reduction of the country’s food imports; and nutrition security, that is, ensuring that the population has access to nutritious food.
He stressed that Guyana has already achieved food security and is making significant strides towards nutrition security as well.
He noted that there is currently an agricultural diversification programme which focuses on growing fruits and vegetables that were not traditionally grown locally.

BROCCOLI and CAULIFLOWER
“Things like broccoli and cauliflower were not part of our everyday meals, and we have added that, so we have made progress,” he said.
The minister pointed out that already there is no need to import any broccoli and cauliflower into the country. He added that potato is also now being grown locally, and will be grown on a much larger scale in the near future which will contribute significantly to the lowering of Guyana’s food importation bill.
In addition, he stated that under the National Food and Nutrition Strategy, the implementation of the Sanitary and Phythosanitary (SPS) Standards will allow Guyana’s products to be exported into more countries.
He noted that the ministry is working in partnership with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (UNFAO), with a grant from the European Union (EU) to develop these standards.