The time for talk is over. SA urgently needs to establish a central food safety agency or we risk paying a terrible price. As the world slowly emerges from the Covid-19 pandemic and pre-crisis global trade patterns re-establish, so too should we be racing to establish a food safety regulatory and testing regime that ensures the health and welfare of SA citizens.

It’s not as if we haven’t had time to act. In fact, the idea of a statutory national food control agency has been debated and considered for about 20 years after first being mooted by then agriculture minister Thoko Didiza as far back as 2001...

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