World Food Safety Day (WFSD) is celebrated every 7 June to draw attention and inspire action to help prevent, detect and manage foodborne risks, innumerable benefits of safe food, human health and sustainable development. Through the World Food Safety Day, WHO pursues its efforts to mainstream food safety in the public agenda and reduce the burden of foodborne diseases globally.
This year’s theme is ‘Safe food today for a healthy tomorrow’. It emphasizes that production and consumption of safe food has immediate and long-term benefits for people, the planet and the economy.
With the observance of WFSD, all stakeholders are invited to participate in awareness generation about food safety and to highlight that everyone involved in food systems has a part to play.
Though it is everyone’s right to get safe, nutritious and sufficient food but still one in ten people in the world fall ill after eating contaminated food. This international day gives us an opportunity to strengthen efforts to ensure that the food we eat is safe. Food can become contaminated at any point during production, distribution and preparation. Everybody has a role to play from farm to table to ensure the food we consume is safe and will not cause damages to our health.
Calls to action
Unsafe food (containing harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites or chemical substances) causes more than 200 diseases ranging from diarrhoea to cancer. When food is not safe, children cannot grow properly, adults cannot work. Safe food is important to promoting health and ending hunger, two of the 17 goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Food safety is everyone’s responsibility, whether you grow, process, transport, store, distribute, sell, prepare, serve or consume food. All have a role to play in keeping food safe.
#SafeFood #FoodSafety #WorldFoodSafetyDay
References-
https://www.who.int/activities/promoting-safe-food-handling
https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-food-safety-day/2021
