Cambodia’s Safe Food, Fair Food project addresses major food safety issues

This blog was originally posted on the Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems website.

by Judy Kimani and Chi Nguyen

Cambodia
has a rich tradition of tasty and nutritious foods. Animal-source foods (ASFs) are an important part of the
cuisine, with the most widely consumed ASF products being pork, fish, and poultry.

Most ASFs in Cambodia are produced by smallholder farmers—many of them women. Much of the food in Cambodia is sold in traditional, outdoor wet markets where women also predominate as retailers. However, the conditions in these markets may also be susceptible to food safety issues, which could result in food-borne illness if not properly addressed. Through support from the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems, a research project in Cambodia is evaluating the economic burden of food-borne diseases in ASF value chains that are important to the poor, and it is piloting a market-based approach to improving food safety that builds on projects successfully implemented by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Africa and Asia.

A researcher collects information and meat samples from a traditional market in Takeo Province, Cambodia (photo credit: Sinh Dang).

Recent project outputs

Over the years, this project has made considerable contributions through the various components of its implementation, including capacity building of key stakeholders. The core publications encompass reports, videos, websites, posters and scientific lectures.

Learn more about this project.

This work was funded in whole or part by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Bureau for Food Security under Agreement # AID-OAA-L-15-00003 as part of Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed here are those of the authors alone.

About the authors: Judy is the communications specialist based at ILRI Nairobi while Chi is a communications specialist providing support to the Safe Food, Fair Food Project in Cambodia.