Patience Makwele
The City of Windhoek has destroyed about 580,000 kilograms of food deemed unfit for human consumption and obtained a court order to shut down a non-compliant food business, in one of its strongest food safety enforcement drives yet.
The revelations were made by Windhoek Mayor Sakarias Uunona during the city’s first commemoration of World Food Safety Day on Wednesday in Windhoek.
Uunona said the municipality condemned and destroyed the food after inspections found it unsafe for consumption, while products subject to recalls were immediately confiscated or removed from the market.
He said the council had also successfully closed a food business through a court order after it failed to comply with food safety requirements.
“Food safety standards are not merely recommendations. They are essential requirements designed to protect public health and save lives,” Uunona said.
The municipality also carried out 140 random food, water and milk sampling exercises across formal and informal businesses, as well as agricultural production facilities. While most samples complied with food safety standards, Uunona said continuous surveillance remained necessary to identify and address risks before they reached consumers.
The enforcement campaign comes against the backdrop of growing global concern over foodborne diseases.
World Health Organization (WHO) representative Dr Richard Banda said unsafe food continues to place a heavy burden on public health, economies and livelihoods worldwide.
According to the WHO, contaminated food causes an estimated 600 million illnesses and about 420,000 deaths every year, with children under the age of five carrying the greatest burden.
“This is unacceptable because foodborne diseases are preventable,” Banda said.
He urged governments to strengthen disease surveillance, laboratory systems, inspections and public communication, warning that climate change, droughts, floods and rising temperatures are increasing food safety risks by affecting food production, storage and transportation.
Banda stressed that food safety must be treated as a shared responsibility involving government, farmers, businesses and consumers.
“There can be no food security without food safety. Food must not only be available and nutritious; it must also be safe to eat,” he said.
Assistant FAO Representative and Officer-in-Charge Ferdinand Mwapopi said food safety was central to Namibia’s agricultural transformation and economic growth.
He said the FAO is supporting Namibia to strengthen food import inspections, improve food safety standards and train small-scale fishing communities in hygiene, food handling and quality control.
Mwapopi called for greater investment in evidence-based food safety systems, saying the country must move beyond identifying problems to implementing practical solutions.
“Safe food is not just the government’s responsibility. It is a shared responsibility from farm to fork,” he said.
As part of its food safety programme, the City of Windhoek has also trained 227 food handlers, who are expected to improve hygiene standards across food businesses in the capital.
Uunona said every inspection, laboratory test and enforcement action represented another step towards safer food for residents.
“Safer food is everybody’s business,” he said.
