Mbale Central Market is the main formal market in Mbale City located in eastern Uganda. The market is a hub of numerous businesses enterprises including vegetables and fruits, meat and meat products, fish and fish products, milk and milk products, legumes, cereals, plantain, textile, telecom gadgets among other businesses currently hosting over 10,313 registered vendors.
The Global Consumer Centre (CONSENT) together with other Afrifood links and Good Food for Cities (GFCs) projects’ partners including Food Rights Alliance (FRA) and Rikolto are presently spear heading a campaign on improving the safety of the raw and cooked food stuffs sold in Mbale Central Market and the neighboring markets. The campaign is primarily tailored towards empowering market
leadership and market vendors with knowledge and skills on optimal food handling practices in the marketplaces.
On the other hand, the campaign is focusing on empowering consumers with knowledge and skills on
food safety to enable them make informed healthier food choices at the time of purchasing food from the marketplaces and maintain food safety practices at the time of food preparation, serving and consumption. In this way, there will be prevention and control of potential food borne illnesses.
CONSENT and her partners mentioned above, are running the food safety campaign through mass
consumer awareness creation, capacity building of market leadership and market vendors on market order, hygiene and sanitation, stall management, optimal food handling practices, financial management and market governance among other relevant topics.
In addition, the campaign is bolstered through market infrastructural development such as provision of standard and descent stalls to the market vendors dealing in fresh fruits and vegetables, construction of the market cooking shade, supporting the market with sanitation and hygiene equipment among others.
On the 11th of February 2025, CONSENT together with FRA and Rikolto convened a meeting of the Mbale Central Market Executive to officially hand over some sanitary materials to enable effective cleaning of the market and hence contribute to the sanitation of the marketplace. The materials that were handed over to the market executive included; Overalls, Rakes, Spades, forked hoes, wheeled
waste bins, helmets, heavy duty gloves, nose dust masks, gum boots, brooms, scrubbing brushes among others.
While handing over the cleaning materials, the market executive was urged to take care of the materials and ensure optimal usage for the intended purpose. They were further reminded of their core mandate of ensuring that the market is kept clean and in order to guarantee that the food in the market is safe for consumers. Similarly, they were encouraged to keep mentoring and coaching the vendors on personal hygiene and sanitation while protecting the market infrastructure in which a lot of financial resources have been heavily invested.
On behalf of the market leadership, the market secretary, market administrator and the market vice chairperson extended a vote of appreciation to CONSENT, FRA and Rikolto for the tireless efforts that have been invested in the Mbale Central Market. In unison, the market leaders pronounced their commitment towards protecting the donated materials and to work harder towards maintaining the hygiene and sanitation of the market while ensuring the safety and quality of the food being supplied to consumers.
