FAO will engage up to 900 producers to ensure the quantity and quality of their produce. ©FAO/Than Rathany

Set minimum standards for food safety and quality for home grown school feeding value chains are a must in order to assure nutritious diets for school-going children in Cambodia- this was a key agreement at a recent workshop which was held on 28 June 2023 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Phnom Penh. The workshop aimed at sharing preliminary results and seeking feedback on draft food safety and quality guidelines for home grown school feeding value chains in Cambodia.

Food safety plays a critical role in ensuring that food stays safe at every stage of the food value chain - from production to harvesting, processing, storage, distribution, all the way through to preparation and consumption.

FAO and WFP are working collaboratively towards development of safety and quality guidelines to ensure food safety and safeguard the health of school-going children who consume school meals under the country’s home grown school feeding programme. Development of guidelines ensures that high standards of food safety and quality are upheld by home grown school feeding actors throughout the value chain.

“We are supporting the supply side by engaging with local producers, mostly smallholder farmers and suppliers, to ensure the home grown school feeding value chains can provide timely delivery of adequate, fresh, safe and nutritious foods to the school kitchens,” says Bun Thol, National Project Coordinator at FAO Cambodia.

The development of the food safety and quality guidelines will help to provide a practical step-by-step guide for key stakeholders with a duty and responsibility to apply the food safety and quality principles in the production and delivery of school meals to students under the home grown school feeding programme.

At the workshop, stakeholders and key actors involved in home grown school feeding at national and subnational levels provided feedback on the content and draft of food safety and quality guidelines stakeholders. It was also a platform that helped to raise awareness and understanding of the minimum standards of food safety and quality for the home grown school feeding value chains in Cambodia, and a forum for presentation of the draft food safety and quality guidelines and updating of stakeholders on the status of its development.

“We strongly support the structure of the guidelines and the contents, which look practical and easy to apply by local practitioners,” said Dim Theng, Deputy Director General of the Consumer Protection Competition and Fraud Repression Directorate-General, Ministry of Commerce, in his remarks.

The workshop had participation of over 30 representatives from the government ministries and departments such as the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries through the Department of Animal Health and Production, and the Department of Aquaculture Development. Stakeholders from private sector, non-governmental organizations, and civil society also participated in the workshop.

As next steps, the guideline will be revised, finalized and validated with practitioners, who include farmers and suppliers and other key actors, and then it will be disseminated for use.

The development of the food safety & quality guidelines is being implemented with generous support from the United States Department of Agriculture Local Regional Food Aid Procurement (LRP) programme, under a project called Technical Assistance to Producers and Suppliers on Enhancing Production Capacity to Engage with Home Grown School Feeding, which is being implemented from 2019-2023. The goal of the project is to strengthen local agricultural value chains, boost school attendance, promote school nutrition and enhance the capacity of the Royal 

Government of Cambodia to achieve the goals set out in its Second National Strategy for Food Security and Nutrition 2019-2023.

Through the project, FAO will engage up to 900 smallholder farmer producers to ensure the quantity and quality of their produce, enhance their ability to participate in competitive bidding, and improve their administrative and financial management skills. Overall there are 168 schools with approximately 42000 students under the LRP project, which WFP is implementing in partnership with FAO. These will be in the strategically targeted areas of Kampong Leaeng and Sameakki Meanchey districts in Kampong Chhnang province; in Baray and Prasat Ballangk districts in Kampong Thom province; and in Srei Snam, Svay Leu and Soutr Nikom districts in Siem Reap province.