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In recent years, food quality and safety issues have become a focus for intense controversy among international trading partners in agribusiness. The issue is dominated by two divergent views: negative versus positive views. The complicated standards are viewed as barriers to access markets which exclude smallholder farmers who cannot meet the requirements to supply high-end Western supermarkets, casting them to the small domestic market as their main market for fresh vegetables and fruits. A contrasting view argues for opportunities for smallholder farmers to differentiate their products in the crowded commodity market space. In spite of this imminent threat, very little exists in the form of explicit national policies or programmes on food safety in most African countries. Cursory public statements exist on food safety but no conscious efforts have yet been made at national level to address the issue in a coherent and comprehensive manner. There is also very little policy co-ordination within and among African countries on food safety issues.