Challenge
In Senegal, USAID’s Feed the Future Business Drivers for Food Safety (BD4FS) activity engages growing food businesses in reducing food contamination, mitigating pre-consumer food loss, and strengthening the overall food system. To inform the design and planning of activity interventions, BD4FS sought a rapid, cost-effective way to understand current food safety practices along the seafood value chain, from fishing boats to households, in seven cities across the country.
Solution
BD4FS asked Premise Contributors to:
- Map and report on the conditions at seafood landing sites, processing sites, and points of sale (e.g., open markets, small vendors, supermarkets).
- Map and audit the conditions and characteristics of local markets, with a focus on food safety and quality (e.g., the presence of fresh foods, use of refrigeration and ice) and water and sanitation (e.g., cleanliness, water sources).
- Share perceptions and preferences related to fresh food and behaviors in markets.
- Self-report and provide pictures of food and food safety practices in the home.
Findings
Premise Contributors sourced more than 400 observations along the seafood supply chain, inclusive of informal actors, and more than 600 observations on market conditions. These insights equipped BD4FS with a more holistic picture of food safety than traditional value chain assessments, which rely on small numbers of key informant interviews.
Using Premise, BD4FS found that nearly half of the processors, open-air markets, and small vendors visited did not use any ice or refrigeration to keep seafood cold. In addition, BD4FS also learned that Premise Contributors who directly observed food practices in markets became more sensitive to food safety as a result of observing, photographing, and reporting on market conditions.
Implications
Equipped with a deeper understanding of food safety and the seafood value chain, BD4S was able to:
- Establish a foundation for BD4FS interventions and additional research.
- Understand the roles of informal actors in the seafood value chain and others with an effect on food safety.
- Design a food safety behavior change communications plan that leveraged images to raise awareness of the benefits of food safety, drawing on a key finding that emerged from Contributor observations.
About Premise
Premise is a crowdsourced insights company. Our technology mobilizes communities of global smartphone users to source actionable data in realtime, cost-effectively and with the visibility you need. In more than 140 countries and 37 languages, we find Data for Every Decision™.