Research and Development

The core service provided under this directorate is conducting of research and development activities in the areas of food safety, sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures, quality standards, sustainability and other specialty standards and trade related requirements.

The NFSI has established a research portfolio covering major areas as aligned to the African Union Commission (AU) Implementation Plan for Food Safety Strategy for Africa, the Draft National SPS Policy and national Quality and Standards Policy of Uganda.

The NFSI conducts scoping and assessment studies to establish food safety challenges, scope the appropriate interventions, test the veracity of the interventions and methods of interventions, develop methods and tools to detect the food safety risks and evaluate the effectiveness of food safety measures.

The NFSI’s research agenda covers four distinct areas as outlined in the NFSI Research Strategy for 2025-2035. They include; Food Safety Research, Sanitary and Phytosanitary Research, Value Chain Assessment,  Food Trade and Legislation. Utilizing the outputs of the research, NFSI envisions to be the leading agri-food, industry and trade sector guide in developing standards and best practices for food safety, SPS and quality management and control and trade development and facilitation.

Backed by high level scientific expertise, NFSI will guide the development of reliable standards to ensure high level assurance of food safety, SPS and quality facilitating confidence building among consumers, traders and regulators of food products.