Definitions
Household food security is defined as availability  and accessibility of adequate food in terms of quality and quantity that is safe, nutritious and acceptable to all household members throughout the year. The food nutrients should meet the individual body requirement. This may also refer to economic and physical accessibility to food. 

Food security is determined by what that particular household is able to purchase, produce, store, process, prepare and consume. In turn these are determined by purchasing power , agricultural productive resources available to that particular household such as amount and quality of land, the amount and division of labour, the availability of production assets, the level and type of technology as well as climate and ecology. 

Background
The government of Tanzania accords high priority to improving the food security and nutritional standards of its people. This has been implemented through agricultural policy, food strategy and other programmes. The policy goals of the Tanzanian food security programme are, “ensuring adequacy of food supplies, maintaining safe supply, stability and security access to available supplies by all consumers according to their nutritional needs”. Most problems that face food security in Tanzania have mainly been due to adverse climatic conditions. At national level food availability is determined by domestic production, imports and food aid. At household level, subsistence crop production and household purchasing power are the main determinants of food security. At this level, the intra-household food distribution among the members is also an important factor. In all parts of the country, cereals and starchy foods are the most important contributors of both energy and protein. Pulses and vegetables also contribute substantially to the protein to the consumers.

Farmers may be unaware that they have food losses where significant amount of the grains and pulses grown in the country never leave the farm.  Food storage is the only part of the system or interim phase through which food passes from the farm to processing and consumption.  However, there are also some post harvest losses of food that occur during improper storage due to pests and poor storage conditions.

To contribute to food security at household level in Tanzania, TFNC has been giving guidance on how to minimize these loses. Specifically TFNC provide advice on packaging and post harvest technology, development and improvement of traditional storage structures, and  extension services. These activities aims at improving household food and nutrition security by minimizing losses which occur during harvesting and post harvest handling of food. Some of the projects undertaken by TFNC in this area are:

I. Product Development
This aims at improving the nutritional quality of homemade food products as well as ensuring quality of commercially available food products and diets.

An area specific approach has been adopted for product development which includes production of:

• Amylase enriched flour.

• Local complementary recipes.

• Improved complementary foods.

• Jams and marmalades.

• Confectionaries and bakery products.

• Micronutrient enriched beverages.

II. Food Preservation
The principles involved in food preservation are those based on knowledge of the conditions under which microorganism, insect and rodents can destroy foods. Perishable food products  such as fruits, vegetables, beef and fish often require preservation treatment before they are stored  for later use in order to ensure their availability during times of shortage.

Food preservation is done by removing water hence helping to inactivate pathogenic microorganisms or bacterial growth and stop enzyme activity. Some preservation techniques include heat treatment, freezing, chilling, drying and addition of chemical preservatives such as sodium meta-bisulphate, sugar, salt and vinegar.

In food preservation the following aspects have been worked out

• Solar drying of green vegetables and fruits.

• Low cost fresh cassava storage.

• Long term storage of sweet potatoes.

• Traditional food preservation techniques (salting and lactic acid use).

• Modification of traditional storage structures.

III Food Processing Technology
Food processing is used to increase the shelf lives  and quality of foods. Also it is done so as to avoid drudgery and to remove toxins.

In this area the following have been worked out:

• Germination

• Fermentation

• Cereal de-hulling and milling

• Improved sweet potato and cassava processing by grating, chipping and pressing

IV. Food Quality and Safety
Food sampling and analysis is done so as to protect the health and economic interest of consumers. Such actions focus especially on food supplements, fortified food, food recipes, and food additives. Specifically food quality and safety analyses are conducted to detect microbial risks and contamination in order to avoid disease causing microorganisms that are transmissible to human. Quality issues in food and other perishable products are generally tackled using another technological or management approach.

Food quality and safety activities carried out include analyzing foods for:

• Microbial contaminants

• Inherent toxic factors such as cyanogens in cassava,

• Mycotoxins such as aflatoxins and fumonisms

• Nutrient inhibitors in legumes, sorghums and millets

• Chemical Contaminants

• Nutrients composition - proximate and carotenoid analysis

• Hygiene of small scale processed complementary foods

V. Tools for Monitoring Food Availability and Storage
These are tools developed to assess, estimate and plan for food supply and availability to meet the food requirement of a household throughout the year. The main tool for monitoring food availability and storage that have been worked out is called Household Food Security Card.