TANZANIA has submitted three standard claims before the 25th East African Standards Committee Meeting, for due consideration.
The claims would later be approved to feature in the East African Standards (EAS) catalogue.
Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) Director of Quality Management, Mr Lazaro Msasalaga singled out Claims on Foods General Requirements (second edition), Nutrition Labelling Requirements (second edition) and claim on the use of Nutrition and Health (second edition) as standards that will be considered for harmonisation and later domestication by other EAC member states.
He was speaking on the sidelines of the ongoing committee meeting that brought together chief executives of regional bureau of standards from the seven partner states here,on Wednesday.
“The sole purpose of such standards is not only to facilitate trade within the EAC, but also to protect consumers of these products,” Mr Msasalaga explained.
The TBS official said Tanzania had rolled out the three standards that the packaging of products within the regional economic bloc and the nutritional benefits of such products get harmonised and complied with by the partner states.
The Managing Director of Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS), Lieutenant Colonel (Rtd) Bernard Njiraini, on his part disclosed that the meeting would also approve 69 standards with a view of facilitating trade across the region.
“Our objective is to enable mutual recognition of standards marks,” the KEBS boss said.
Mr David Livingstone Ebiru from the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) disclosed that the meeting will also delve on a number of conformity assessments, with a particular focus on Codex Alimentarius, or ‘Food Code’, which is a collection of standards, guidelines and codes of practice adopted by the Codex Alimentarius Commission.
Un-harmonised standards and other trade documentation and duplicative inspections and testing hamper trade, causing overall delays and increases the cost of doing business within the EAC.
According to the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), harmonised standards are “standards on the same subject approved by different standardising bodies or authorities, that establish interchangeability of products, processes and services, or mutual understanding of test results or information provided according to these standards.”
