Windhoek — RESEARCHERS from a university in the United Kingdom are to line up with their Namibian counterparts for a study on how to improve the safety of food sold at local street stalls.

The University of Salford said they are working with the World Health Organisation and Namibian Government to improve the safety of street food.

Around 75 per cent of food in Africa is bought on the street and improvements in this sector can have a huge impact on public health.

Salford's Professor Eunice Taylor and Dr Joanne Taylor will be travelling to Namibia in October to meet with Government officials in order to start a project that involves training local researchers in techniques to identify appropriate safe methods that can be used within the limited facilities available to street traders.

Buying ready-cooked food from street-side stalls is seen as the most cost-effective way of getting food for the majority of people in Namibia, as it removes the need to have cooking facilities in the home and saves money on fuel, water and ingredients.

The project team is being co-ordinated in Namibia by Tjipena Mengo who is taking an e-learning MSc in Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (the international method for food safety) at Salford University.

It is hoped that eventually, more professionally qualified inspectors like Tjipena can help make buying food in Namibia a safer business.

"In the past, attempts to export Western methods of food safety inspection have not worked.

We're proposing to work with market traders, local government officials and our colleagues at the University of Namibia to produce a best practice guide that can be used across Africa," said Eunice Taylor.

She said the importance of the industry and the project cannot be underestimated - "in areas where large numbers of people are immuno-compromised through HIV and AIDS, contaminated food can be lethal."

The University of Salford is one of the largest providers of food safety management training in the UK.