Food is an essential and fundamental right of humans, and so is the safety of the food. Hence, it is essential to maintain the safety of food from farm to plate, therefore, necessary to monitor food throughout this chain.
The WHO, in collaboration with FAO, is celebrating the second world food safety day 2020 under the theme “Food safety, everyone’s business.” We are back to celebrate the second World Food Safety Day (WFSD), we wrote about it last year. Food is an essential and fundamental right of humans, and so is the safety of the food. Hence, it is essential to maintain the safety of food from farm to plate, therefore, necessary to monitor food throughout this chain.
Highlights-
Why is it necessary to keep food safe?
First and foremost, the reason is to avoid the occurrence of foodborne illnesses and diseases. The yearly report on foodborne illness reported is 600 million, and 420,000 deaths related to these illnesses. Deaths due to foodborne illness, outbreaks, have been continually increasing in the current scenario. Hence, we need to pay attention to the specifics right from the grassroots level. These include asking three questions – a) What do we feed our soil and crops? b) What do the animals we consume eat? and c) What do the oceanic organisms consume and how does that affect us, as we are at the top of the food chain.
- World food day celebrated on October 16th; however, there is no awareness about the aspect of food safety until the 2019 WFSD. The United Nations declared this day to draw global attention to the consequences of foodborne illnesses and risks associated with the consumption of contaminated food and water
- The stakeholders in the supply chain are responsible for the safety of the food that reaches our kitchen. The safety after we bought the food material is our responsibility as we are going to consume the food.
- We are all the manufacturers, farmers, wholesalers, retailers, and consumers are responsible for keeping our food safe.
- Call of action (by WHO)
- Ensure it’s safe – Government must ensure safe and nutritious food for all
- Grow it safe – Agriculture and food producers need to adopt good practices
- Keep it safe – Business operators must make sure food is safe
- Eat it safe: All consumers have a right to safe, healthy and nutritious food
- Team up for safety – Food Safety is a shared responsibility
Who is responsible for keeping food safe?
- The answer is all of us. We can all do it together, as Helen Keller said, “alone we can do so little; together, we can do so much.”
Concluding note:
Due to globalization, our food is traveling longer than it used to in the past. Hence, to ensure the food is safe for consumption, we should take keen interest while purchasing and picking ingredients to make out favorite platter at home.
References:
- https://www.who.int/news-room/campaigns/world-food-safety-day/2020
- https://thefoodtechclub.com/2019/06/07/world-food-safety-day-2019/
- https://www.cdc.gov/foodborneburden/2011-foodborne-estimates.html#:~:text=CDC%20estimates%20that%20each%20year,3%2C000%20die%20of%20foodborne%20diseases.
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