REPRESENTATIVES of small and medium-sized food processors and food industry professionals were this week educated on food traceability systems which ensure that health concerns about the safety and quality of food produced locally, imported or exported are adequately addressed.The capacity-building workshop, held on Tuesday and Wednesday, was organised by the local office of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation in Agriculture (IICA), in collaboration with the Global Food Traceability Center (GFTC) of the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) in Chicago, Illinois.
The workshop was funded by the European Union under the 10th EDF project of ”Support to the Caribbean forum of ACP states in the implementation of commitments undertaken under the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) : Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS)Measures.” The venue was the Regency Suites Hotel in Hadfield Street, Georgetown.
Food traceability systems are record-keeping procedures, or tracing systems, that record the path of a food product or an ingredient in a food product from its initial supplier through all processing stages until it reaches the end consumer. The traceability programme is one element of the SPS programme which aims to increase CARIFORUM states production and trade in agriculture and fisheries which meet international standards and thereby qualify these products for access to international markets in Europe and North America.
The resource persons for the programme were Tejas Bhatt, Director of the IFT and Jaheon Koo, Director of Food Safety Programmes of the IFT. Officials present at the launch on Tuesday included Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Mr George Jervis; Executive Board Member of the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA),Mr Raymond Ramsaroop; Local IICA representative Mr Wilmot Garnett and senior staffers of the IICA.
Mr Garnett welcomed the 30 participants and told them that in current times as world trade continues to increase, food safety remains a major challenge. Traceability systems must be developed and managed using scientific methods, especially to link the finished product to the specific grower. He told participants that the management tools they will receive at the traceability workshop will better enable them to manage the supply chain, production/operation efficiencies, competitive advantage and market access, recall capabilities and food safety.
He stressed that IICA’s commitment is results, and the agency was committed to continue to support CARIFORUM member states with the necessary management tools to increase their market share, globally.
Jervis said that being able to ascertain the origin of products, ingredients and their attributes, from the farm through food-processing to retail and the consumer, is growing in importance.

“It is critically important for people nowadays to know and or actively find out where what they eat is coming from.” He mentioned rumours that shrimp, which is being smuggled to and sold in Guyana, are harvested in the sewage system of another country. He lauded the organisers of the programme and stressed that apart from local food safety, gaining a capability for traceability is necessary for exporting food to the major markets in Europe and North America.
Mr Ramsaroop said that concerns about both the safety and quality of food continue to escalate and the importance of traceability is widely recognised by persons within the industry.
He said that if all comply with the process, consumers will benefit from the resultant transparency about the products they consume and will be very happy about it. Topics being dealt with at the two-day workshop include: Principles and practice of traceability and recall systems; its role in the implementation and management of food-safety management systems and tools required for implementing the traceability system.
Public sector participants include representatives from the New Guyana Marketing Corporation, the Guyana School of Agriculture, the University of Guyana, the Government Analyst/Food and Drug Department, the Guyana National Bureau of Standards, the Guyana Livestock Development Authority, the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute and the National Milling Company of Guyana (NAMILCO).
Private sector participants include representatives from Bounty Farm, Prestige Manufacturing Limited, Major Foods Limited, Edward Beharry and Sons, Ricks and Sari, Sterling Products, Jet’s Enterprises, Women Agricultural Development Network (WADN) Bounty Farm and Survival Supermarket.