Dealing with food safety: chips producers call for new varieties of Irish potato seeds

By Elias Hakizimana.

Quality and safety of food can be proved by the variety of seeds used to produce crops according to experts in agro-processing sector.

Chips producers claim low quality of Irish potato seeds that still challenge their production expectations.

For the food products made in Irish potatoes, it is a must to follow safety requirements while selecting the seeds, first and foremost, the process starts from the farm by testing dry matter in the soil and the seed itself is tested for sugar and water quantity that affect chips processing.

Despites the efforts made to get a certificate (HACCP) to sell the produce at the international markets, there is a need to increase research on new generations of seeds that have safety standards according to Rwanda’s Irish potato processors to ensure quality of the end product.

Vincent Nsabimana, food safety director in Holland Fair Food Company Limited in Musanze district says their factory has got the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) a system to prevent food safety hazards after the training and support of Rwanda Standards Board (RSB) in partnership with Trade Mark Africa (TMA), but they still push back some seed samples of Irish potatoes grown by farmers in this area.

“The certificate is helpful because we manage to teste all the parameters of Irish potatoes from farm, factory processing until the end product, we have qualified agronomists we work with since 2010 of the factory operation, in chips processing, we give value to the Irish potato that has at least 135 days of maturity since it was planted, the most challenge is that we sometimes lack quality yield especially during rainy season because a big quantity is rotten, others have much water or sugar that can affect chips production,” Nsabimana says, adding that there is a need to build partnership with Rwanda Agriculture Board (RAB) to boost research on the new varieties of Irish potatoes of good quality.

 

The factory receives 8 tons of fresh Irish potatoes that give 2 tons of ‘winnaz’ chips. 60 percent of this product goes to Kigali supermarkets while 40 percent is exported.

“Only 4 out of 50 samples of seed varieties tested at the factory can be accepted to pass and 25 percent of all the received samples can be successful, reason why we use other varieties from other areas of the country instead of relying on those from Musanze,” he says.

The role of Rwanda Standards Board

“RSB collaborates with RAB and other relevant institutions in the process of Standards development, during processing of   potato crisps (chips), high dry matter content matters for good quality crisps,” says Jean Bosco Mulindi, Director of Product Certification Unit at Rwanda Standards Board (RSB).

Currently, according to the figures from Rwanda Standards Board (RSB), there are 42 HACCP certified agro-processing companies and 20 more that have the certificate of Food Safety Management System (FSMS).

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