The inspector at the border

04/06/2026

The containers came in off the water like they always do — no fanfare, no indication of what they held or where the cold chain might have broken down. Inside: imported chicken wings, multiple lots, different importers, each one representing a question about what had happened between pen and dock.

Hounaidat Abdouroihamane, a sworn sanitary inspector at Comoros’ National Institute for Research in Agriculture, Fisheries and the Environment, pulled the paperwork, a step she now prioritised and carried out systematically.

That inspection, at a border entry point in a heavily import-dependent nation, illustrates a shift now underway in how countries are protecting the food its people eat. In a European Union (EU)-funded initiative examining food safety systems across 10 eastern and southern African countries, including Comoros, the Food and Agriculture Organizaiton of the United Nations (FAO) identified gaps in the countries’ import controls.

With funding from the Government of Ireland and Flexible Voluntary Contributions, FAO helped to address these gaps by shifting the system from reactive gatekeeping to a structured, evidence-driven approach that directs limited resources to the highest-risk shipments.

The stakes are not abstract. Comoros, for example, imports more than 80 percent of the food consumed across its three islands. Rice, meat, dairy — the daily sustenance of nearly a million people —  flows through a handful of entry points where inspectors stand as the last institutional check before food reaches the market.

A non-compliant shipment that passes through does not stay at the border. It moves into homes and schools, onto the plates of children and elderly people, those who especially depend on a food system that doesn’t fail them. Beyond the human cost, foodborne illness drains household budgets and strains health systems.

For years, the system managing that risk operated on empirical observations. But this approach is uneven, undocumented and impossible to defend or scale.

Risk-based inspection reframes the question at the center of the inspector's job. Rather than asking which containers to open, it asks which carry the greatest probability of harm and answers that question with evidence.

Hounaidat now builds a risk profile before she acts: the nature of the product, its perishability, the importer’s compliance history; the conditions and duration of transport; the traceability of the documentation. She weighs what she finds before she decides where to focus.

The chicken wings inspection brought that method into play. Using the profiles she had built, Hounaidat gave high-risk lots closer attention. "The control was more targeted and the resources — time and sampling — were used optimally," she says.

"I now make decisions that are both consistent for the country and protective for the consumer.”

An FAO report published in late 2025 identified food control risk-based approaches and categorization as among the areas of greatest need across eastern and southern Africa. The finding points to a gap between knowing that risk-based inspection is best practice and having the institutional infrastructure to deliver it.

Comoros was the first country to conclude the FAO-supported assessment and endorse the final recommendations. With funding from the EU, the country implemented the FAO/World Health Organization Food Control System Assessment Tool, an instrument designed to evaluate the whole food control system— from production through retail— rather than treating inspection as a standalone function.

The systems approach reveals the importance of agencies like the Customs, Port Authorities, the Ministry of Health and the Chamber of Commerce working together. Cases of non-compliance now reach the agencies that need to act on them. A dangerous shipment that might have once slipped through the cracks between institutional mandates now faces a system with fewer gaps.

The project was explicitly designed to dismantle obstacles to freer trade while protecting consumers. A food control system that catches what it should catch and clears what it should clear is a trade asset because a country's sanitary reputation is not a soft consideration; it shapes the terms on which its products are received abroad and the confidence with which consumers buy them at home.

"Strengthening food safety is important to support trade and the economy and to improve the sanitary image of the country," Hounaidat says.

The durability of what has been built depends on whether it spreads. Hounaidat comments that the skills and tools she has acquired carry value beyond her own inspections precisely because they can be transmitted."These tools can be transferred to colleagues," she says, "which progressively strengthens national capacities."

Hounaidat wants to see harmonized checklists and risk-scoring grids reinforced across all agencies and all three islands, which currently do not share uniform inspection procedures.

And she wants the infrastructure that makes consistency enforceable: importer history databases, accessible traceability records and digitalization of inspection processes that can inform future decisions.

Building on the momentum of the initial project, additional initiatives are further strengthening food control systems and ensuring the sustainability of capacity-building efforts. In two of Comoros’ islands, Mohéli and Anjouan, FAO is expanding the application of risk-based food control approaches through workshops, reinforcing inspectors’ practical skills while promoting harmonized and decentralized control practices across the country.

In a job where a wrong call in either direction — passing a dangerous consignment or blocking a safe one — carries real consequences, that confidence is not a luxury. It is what the system requires of the person standing at the border.