Food Safety refers to the assurance that food will not cause harm to the consumer when it is prepared and/or eaten according to its intended use. Section 2(1) of the Foodstuffs, Cosmetics and Disinfectants Act 54 of 1972 prevents any person from placing into international trade any food that is unfit for human consumption. The Agricultural Products Standards Act 119 of 1990 (APS Act) controls and promotes specific product quality standards for the local market and for export purposes. It is administered and enforced by the Directorate: Food Safety and Quality Assurance in the Department of Agriculture (DoA). With respect to food safety, the PPECB has been appointed and authorised to conduct Food Safety audits (Regulation 707), test groundnuts for aflatoxins (Regulation 1145 tolerance for fungusproduced toxins in foodstuffs) and conduct compositional testing of dairy products (Regulation R2581 relating to dairy products and imitation dairy products) destined for the export market.

The purpose of this programme is to ensure compliance with standards regarding food hygiene and food safety as promulgated in Notice 707 of 13 May 2005. This is in line with the following European Commission (EC) directives: EC 178/2002 and EC 1525/1998, including the relevant Codex principles. The intent is to enable South Africa’s continuous penetration of international markets and therefore increase its market share with regard to safe and quality foods.

Both the organisation and individuals must place emphasis on continuous skills development. Individuals will need to develop a different set of competencies which will enable them to cope with digitalisation. The competencies needed, therefore, will be a mixed bag consisting of behavioural, technical, and practical competencies. This means it will not be enough to only have the knowledge; application also becomes important. In the rapid reskilling era, unlimited and unrestricted access to learning is becoming a game changer. However, to harness the benefits of this unlimited and unrestricted access to learning, we need to develop into self-directed, agile learners with a strong growth mindset. The organisational culture required is one that promotes lifelong learning. All generations and types of employees will need to be given the opportunity to upskill themselves. This implies that learning will have to be on demand, bite-sized and in different formats that can suit all types of learning styles. The policies and procedures that are put in place should encourage unlimited and unrestricted access to learning. Innovation should be encouraged, and people should be allowed to explore, experiment, and fail without fear of being punished. Employees also need space to unlearn redundant competencies and relearn what is relevant for the future.

The Learning and Development department’s services aim to expose smallholder farmers to food safety, good agricultural practices, responsible use of pesticides, cold chain management and product quality training in preparation for food safety certification and market access.

Development initiatives are run on a collaborative basis with the DoA and provincial departments of agriculture and service all provinces in South Africa. Collaboration not only extends to sister state-owned enterprises but also to commercial development partners.