Food Safety & Supply Chain Management
Food and beverage products stand apart from most other consumer goods
Due to their strict hygiene standards, short shelf lives, unique packaging needs, and specific storage temperatures and facilities. As a result, the food and beverage industry’s supply chain faces numerous complex challenges: responding to evolving consumer preferences and future market trends, upholding food safety, adapting to climate change, and minimising food waste. To boost productivity and ensure high-quality output, companies must optimise their supply chains. However, limited capacity and expertise at every stage of the food system—from input supply and farming or livestock rearing, through processing and onto distribution—pose significant barriers to improving quality throughout the value chain. Embracing climate-smart technologies and expanding post-harvest capabilities, such as cold chain solutions, are vital steps. These improvements help deliver produce to local markets and aggregate goods for further processing and export, ultimately supporting profitability and sustainable livelihoods for farmers, even in remote rural areas.
NIRAS supports farmers, agribusiness, and governments agencies and institutions at all levels to help maximise yields and optimise business operations while also minimising production costs and environmental impact, and maintaining food consumption standards. We provide support to the overall quality infrastructure, including its legislative framework, structural set up for implementation and enforcement, and work with improving the quality production at farm level where most of the food borne diseases enter the food chain.
Our specialist services:
More widely, NIRAS’ dedicated food and beverage division works with private processing entities across the world
Highlighted Projects
Improve quality seed production of traditional, climate resilient crops
Markets and Seeds Access Project (MASAP) is a 12-year initiative funded by SDC, with NIRAS leading efforts to promote drought-tolerant crops together with FiBL and CDTO in Zambia and Zimbabwe. The project works with private sector partners to help smallholder farmers—especially women and youth—adopt Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), quality management procedures, and climate-smart techniques. Emphasis is placed on producing drought-tolerant, disease-resistant crop varieties, using certified seeds, and implementing best practices in land preparation, weeding, and moisture conservation. MASAP addresses food safety by minimizing aflatoxin contamination through improved processing and storage, and supports ongoing research in this area. The project engages with policymakers and value chain stakeholders to promote supportive policies and provide training to ensure high-quality, safe food and seed systems. MASAP facilitates the development of a framework for farmer seed variety registration aimed at expanding access to traditional, high-quality seed varieties.
Phase 1 successfully laid a strong foundation for enhancing the productivity, resilience, and incomes for smallholder farmers in Zambia and Zimbabwe, with 34,268 farmers linked with private sector and earning an income, final-year yield increases of up to 1,300 kg/ha and supporting 65 profitable farmer organisations directly contributing to improved food security and nutrition outcomes.
Strengthen the skills and knowledge of the Uzbek national administration working with the legal and regulatory framework governing the agri-food sector
Agri-food legal and regulatory support initiative to Uzbekistan is an EU-funded assignment that NIRAS implemented to support the government of Uzbekistan in implementing the reforms prioritised in its national Agri-food Development Strategy (ADS) for 2020-2030. As Uzbekistan moves towards World Trade Organisation (WTO) membership, aligning national legislation with international standards, particularly the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standards (SPS) and Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Agreements, is essential to ensure equivalence, facilitate trade, and build a reliable food safety system. The priority areas highlighted in the ADS demand a legal framework to define rights and responsibilities of all actors along agri-food value chains. Key areas of support included:
- Conducting a comprehensive food safety legal and regulatory assessment, including a gap analysis, case studies on international best practices, and thedevelopment of a legal reform roadmap aligned with Uzbekistan’s strategy for WTO accession
- Performing a food safety regulatory monitoring and compliance assessment
- Strengthening Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) practices within the Ministry of Agriculture through capacity-building initiatives. This includes applied case studies and targeted training on RIA methodology to enhance evidence-based policy-making.
