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Executive Summary

Many low-income, food-insecure, and malnutrition-vulnerable communities in Africa, Asia, and Latin America rely on traditional markets to access nutritious fresh food like meat, poultry, seafood, fruit, and vegetables. However, contaminated fresh foods in markets put the well-being of consumers at risk by compromising their uptake of nutrients, needed for proper growth and health. Unsafe food also contributes to food waste and can raise food prices and lower market vendors’ profits. Improving hygiene in traditional food markets is thus vital to improving nutritional outcomes for consumers in low- and middle-income countries and can positively contribute to market vendors’ livelihoods and sustainable local food systems. The Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition and its partners work to improve conditions in traditional markets in Africa and Asia through alliances with governments, market leaders, vendors, and consumers. Following formative research, including the review of regional guidelines on street-vended foods and lessons learned from programmatic endeavours, it was clear that practical food hygiene guidelines for traditional markets were needed. In 2022, GAIN initiated a process to champion global Guidelines for Food Hygiene Controls in Traditional Markets for Food through the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC), where GAIN is an observer organisation Those Guidelines were adopted in November 2024. As a global standard, they offer national, sub-national, and local governments, as well as market authorities and vendors, a practical, universal, and evidence-informed tool to use towards the achievement of hygiene control improvements in traditional markets. GAIN and other organisations can use the Guidelines to advocate with governments for local adoption and implementation.

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