National Food Safety Authority (NFSA)

The Egyptian Parliament has approved the law number 1/2017 establishing the National Food Safety Authority on Monday 2, January 2017.  The Law was published in Official Gazette on January 10, 2017.

The Executive Regulation of the Law was issued by Prime Minister Decree number 412/2019 and published on February 18, 2019

The provision of Article 3)1(of Law No.1 of the year 2017 on the Enactment of the Law on the National Food Safety Authority states “NFSA shall exercise all the required powers and competence and shall in particular: 1. issue mandatory technical regulations governing food safety in accordance with the applicable international standards and in a manner consistent with the national requirements and such regulations shall be determined by a decision issued by NFSA/BOD”.

Accordingly, NFSA/BOD issued Decision No.1 of the year 2018 on the Rules Governing the Registration and Handling of Foods for Special Dietary Uses (FSDU) as well as Decision No.1 of the year 2019 on the Mandatory Technical Regulations Governing Food-Grade Salt and Handling.

The Board of Trustees has been formed by Prime Minister Decree 683/2017. The Board of Directors has been formed by Prime Minister Decree 1433/2017.

The National Food Safety Agency of Egypt (NFSA) is an open and independent authority to protect consumers’ health and consumers’ interests by ensuring that food consumed, distributed, marketed or produced in Egypt meets the highest standards of food safety and hygiene.

National Food Safety Authority Management Unit (FSA- MU) was established in 2008 under the umbreall of Ministry of Trade and Industry to take all necessary measures that help to establish the authority and to ensure launching its activities once the law establishing the authority is issued.

In addition, NFSA- MU was actively participating in some specialized technical committees that were working to improve food safety criteria of certain food products, until the law establishing NFSA is issued and the responsibility to control all domestic and imported food stuffs is moved to NFSA. These committees include:

1. Steering Committee of the Green Trade Initiative (established by Minister of Trade and Industry Decree No 730/2005).
2. Steering committee of The Egyptian systems for safety and quality of dairy products to facilitate exports to the global markets (established by: Minister of Industry, Trade, and Small and Medium entities Decree No. 592/2014).
3. Steering Committee of The Egyptian safety and quality systems of herbal, medical and aromatic products (established by: Minister of Industry and Foreign Trade Decree No. 205/2013).