ANGOLA – The Angolan National Authority for Economic Inspection and Food Safety (ANIESA) has seized three tons of maize meal from the brands “TOP’S and “Extra Fina” which were claimed to be in ‘poor condition’ and posed a food safety hazard to the consumers.
According to Dário José, an official in ANIESA, the tons correspond to 134 bags of cornmeal that the public has raised complaints about.
In response, the agency culminated in a surprise visit to the commercial establishment where the goods were found in flagrante delicto.
Dário referred that ANIESA technicians, in partnership with other forces, proceeded to close the commercial establishment, stating that the products being released to consumers were unfit for human consumption.
He further stated that, apart from the questionable consignment, the team identified other violations encountered in the same establishment. He highlighted the lack of structure for calculating prices, hygiene, purchase invoice, and expired habitability certificates.
ANIESA was established in 2020 through Presidential Decree No. 267/20, of 16 October as the sole entity for carrying out inspection activities in the country.
It is a Public Institute that resulted from the unification of the sectorial inspection services for Industry, Commerce, Tourism, Environment, Transport, Health, Agriculture, and Fisheries.
According to the officials, the move was in line with ANIESA’s objective of ensuring greater administrative efficiency and effectiveness, as well as eliminating the duplicity of the inspection intervention, through the adoption of a new paradigm of action that focuses on reducing procedures and improving the business environment.
This comes after the Angolan Strategic Food Reserve (REA) partnered with Carrinho Agri, an agricultural transformation company, to purchase more than 10,000 tons of corn from local farmers in a quest to attain self-sufficiency in local markets.
The move by REA was in response to the government’s self-sufficiency drive that started last year when Angola announced plans to invest US$5.7 billion in various agriculture-focused projects under the National Plan for Grain Production dubbed PlanaGrao with an overall goal of raising grain production to 6 million tonnes by 2027.
According to the government, the move was motivated by the need to reduce dependence on grain imports, which the Ministry of Economy and Planning unveiled that the import bill for this category of foodstuffs amounts to more than US$791 million each year.
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