TANZANIA – The Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) has at the culmination of the week-long Fahari ya Geita exhibition, urged entrepreneurs in Geita Region to produce goods that meet the set quality standards so as to easily penetrate domestic and regional markets.

“We used the Fahari Geita exhibition as a platform to educate entrepreneurs in the region to certify their goods which is a fundamental step in expanding and penetrating wide markets,” said Julius Panda, Chief Food Safety Officer, TBS Lake Zone.

According to Panda, TBS is mandated to prepare and manage the national standards, provide technical advice to industrial producers to make high quality goods, measure and approve industrial measurements as well as provide training to workers in industries.

He highlighted that participants in the Fahari ya Geita exhibition were informed about the TBS role of registering food premises, which is of prominence as it aims at ensuring goods distributed or sold in the country are preserved in places that meet quality and safety standards.

The Food Safety Officer noted with concern that most of the entrepreneurs in the region fail to meet the criteria needed to certify their goods due to limited capital.

He also revealed some of the entrepreneurs lacked proper places that meet the required standards for carrying production activities.

“During the Fahari ya Geita exhibition we encouraged entrepreneurs to make use of the opportunities to access capital provided in the district councils,” he said.

Substandard goods destroyed

TBS had earlier impounded and destroyed substandard food products in the Western zones, that were illegally being sold in the market posing a threat to consumers’ health.

The TBS Western zones Acting Manager, Mr. Rodney Alananga, said the substandard goods were destroyed in Sumbawanga, Rukwa Region over the weekend.

“We have seized and destroyed various low food and cosmetic products worth 25m/- which were being trades illegally in markets,” he said.

Mr. Rodney said the low-quality products were seized during the operations carried between February and May this year in different parts of the Western zone regions.

Some of the goods seized were past their shelf life and others had been banned from entering and trading in the country as stated in Standards Act 2009, due to their effects on people’s health, environment and the economy, he informed.

The perpetrators were given a stern warning and charged to bear all the destruction costs of the goods.

The Acting Manager therefore called upon all stakeholders including importers, distributors, retailers and consumers to abide to the laws on selling and using high quality products that meet the TBS standards.

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