Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) has said the number of verified food services providers in Dar es Salaam is not satisfactory.
The standard institution said to reverse the trend is now embarking on a special campaign to educate the service to provide on the importance of abiding with food standards.
The TBS, Food Risk Assessment Unit, Acting Manager, Dr Ashura Kilewela, currently the number of the food-related service providers is not tallying with those verified.
"The number of food service providers such as food transporters and millers of various grains verified by the TBS is not satisfactory compared to the number of service providers in Dar es Salaam," Dr Kilewela said.
The officer was representing TBS Director General Mr Athuman Ngenya when launching a special training for food related stakeholders held recently in Dar.
The training was centred on raising awareness of the importance of being verified for food vendors and small grain millers in Dar es Salaam.
"Since food is health, business, and also a country's economy... it is important that stakeholders are complying with the rules and regulations so that they produce good and safe food," said Dr Ashura.
Additionally, she said that the purpose of the training was to provide education to the vendors to abide by the laws and regulations of TBS to ensure that the community gets safe food.
Dr Ashura also said the government aims to ensure that it has a large network that deals with the quality and safety of food, which is why they are providing such training to council and city officials.
"We do not do these tasks alone, we collaborate with health and business experts from various areas and since we are in Dar es Salaam today, those who participated in the training are from here," she added
Ms Ashura added that regardless of the efforts made including the announcements to invite people to the training, the number of attendees still was not sufficient, calling upon those attending the training to become ambassadors to others.
Mr Ally Shaban, one of the training attendees, said the course will help mostly the food vendors since it will be giving service to the community by complying with the standards set by the TBS.
