Food Quality and Safety

The Food Aid Quality and Safety work stream focused on food safety and quality auditing and monitoring, supply chain assessment, food aid packaging solutions, food safety and quality assurance feedback loop, quality assurance for local and regional procurement and last-mile.

Food Aid Safety

The Food Aid Safety and Quality Systems team focused on:

  • Exploring the potential for improved food aid packaging in enhancing/retaining nutrients in food aid products, extending product shelf life, improving transportability, resisting pest infestation and messaging; assess issues of packaging and storage, including pest infestation, mold contamination, food wastage, as well as environmental concerns relating to container disposal.
  • Reviewing supply chain oversight: analyzing decision making along the entire supply chain in order to optimize processes and identify efficiencies and choke-points. The supply chain assessment will take into account potential threats to food safety, nutrient stability, product quality, and cost-effectiveness, where ‘effectiveness’ is defined in terms of timely delivery of products to their final destination in good condition.
  • Assessing the existing food safety and quality feedback loop developed by FFP’s Program Operations Division.
  • Improving quality assurance for local and regional procurement, based on USAID FFP’s transition from Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) to a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) approach to food safety as USAID food aid procurement adapts to include more local and regional procurement (LRP). FAQR III will support this transition from GMP to HACCP and assist in maintaining the same standards of food safety and quality in both U.S.-sourced and internationally sourced food aid commodities.

Final Report


Questions about this work stream?

Contact Principal Investigator, patrick.webb@tufts.edu.