A recent analysis showed that the aquaculture value chain in Egypt is mainly based on the production of tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) and mullet (Mugil cephalus and Liza ramada). The value chain was found to be short with no post-harvest processing (Macfadyen et al. 2011). However, there is a wide spread perception among poor and rich consumers, authorities and even technical staff that farmed fish contains high level of pollutants such as cancer-causing heavy metals, pesticides or hormones.

In October 2012, WorldFish facilitated a 2-week mission trip to Egypt for four scientists in the Safe Food, Fair Food (SFFF) project from West Africa and with expertise on fish safety who had been trained in participatory risk analysis. During the mission, tools were developed and tested to assess the safety of farmed tilapia. These drafts were later expanded and refined into a generic toolkit by…