Data Sheet 1_Food safety interventions in Africa: a scoping review of strategies, incentives, and enabling environments.pdf

Africa bears significant foodborne disease burden, and several programs have been implemented over the past decades to address these challenges; however, knowledge of their effectiveness remains fragmented limiting the ability for future interventions to learn from these collective experiences. We identified and mapped food safety interventions conducted in Africa. Peer-reviewed articles on food safety interventions in Africa were systematically retrieved, and the findings were synthesized based on descriptive mapping and logistic regression, providing an evidence base to inform future intervention design. From the 91 papers identified training and information sharing was the most common intervention strategy (56%) followed by technology-based interventions (44%). While incentives for the target population were included in 26% of interventions, an ‘enabling environment’ was identified in only 20%. Overall, 72% of interventions reported success and 19% reported partial success. Regression analysis revealed that earlier (p = 0.027) and rigorously designed (p = 0.020) studies were more likely to report success. The Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) adjusted GDP of intervention countries emerged as marginally associated with success (p = 0.073), with odds of success increasing by approximately 0.1% for each additional billion US$ in PPP-GDP. These associations are descriptive and intended to highlight patterns within the evidence base rather than to establish causal relationships. Review findings emphasized the importance of ensuring sustainability with incentives for participants. The overarching role of national wealth was also observed, correlating with the presence of pre-requisites for food safety including infrastructure and governance.