Asiu c: measures should be established to protect against unsafe, low quality, adulterated, mis- branded, contaminated, or ‘expired’ foods through the development of national food standard guide- lines (eventually legislation). Africa a: at present, there are no national manda- tory compliance procedures to guide industry, importers, exporters, and government regulatory bodies to assess and ensure food quality and safety. Others described the many laws which have been enacted over a long time span with the responsibility for food control divided among many agencies. ??Africa h: there are different regulations through many laws, ministerial decrees and standards. Some of these laws and decrees are very old and do not match with the new governmental policy. There are more than eight agencies responsible for food quality and safety. There is overlapping of responsibilities between government agencies which complicates the work and makes it more expensive. National Plans of Action for Nutrition also had descriptions of positive aspects of their laws to protect the quality and safety of food: ??Afica c continues to participate actively in Codex Alimentarius Commission and the African Regional Standards Organization; both organiza- tions have the objectives of protecting the health of consumers. ??Europe a: the main regulation concerning foods has been laid down in the Food Etc. Act, which comes under the purview of the Ministry of Health. The National Food Agency superintends the municipal food control within the purview of the Act, and is to ensure the co-ordination of the control efforts of the local authorities with respect to the manufacturing, sale and composition of foods. Updating of food control laws was a frequently mentioned goal in the plans of action including the following: Africa h: legal advisors of different concerned agencies should cooperate with key technical persons and work together to update laws and regulations, clarifying the responsibilities of each agency. LAmer/Curih a: enact food laws including nutrition labelling which are acceptable locally, regionally and internationally. In a document prepared for the International Confer- ence on Nutrition, it was stated that ‘Adequate food quality and safety legislation and implementing regulations alone are not enough; there must also be effective programmes to ensure compliance with the laws and regulations’ (FAOWHO 1992b). Many nations addressed the need to combine legislation on