June 7 is observed as World Food Safety Day and the reason behind this observation/celebration is to inspire action to help prevent, detect, and manage food-borne risks.
A concerted effort to make and keep food safe contributes to food security, human health, economic prosperity, agriculture, market access, tourism, and sustainable development.
Celebrating World Food Safety Day will give consumers, producers, and governments a chance to focus on an issue that is often taken for granted. Food safety is invisible until you get ill.
Anyone who has had food poisoning knows this.
The occurrence of two or more cases of a similar illness resulting from the ingestion of a common food is known as a food-borne disease outbreak.
With an estimated 600 million cases of food-borne illnesses annually, unsafe food is a threat to human health and economies, disproportionately affecting vulnerable and marginalized people, especially women and children, populations affected by conflict, and migrants.
An estimated three million people around the world – in developed and developing countries – die every year from food and waterborne disease.
World Food Safety Day was introduced in 2018 by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). It’s a joint collaborative effort of WHO and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations; along with other member states, and organisations to eliminate potential health hazards caused by food-borne diseases, globally.
The day has always been of utmost importance and there has never been a more dire need to ensure healthcare than now, given the COVID-19 situation.
Due to this pandemic, it has become all the more imperative to strengthen immunity, eliminate the spread of foodborne ailments, inculcate healthy, hygienic practices in agricultural domains, market and everywhere that involves food dealings.
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The endeavour of World Food Safety has always been to mitigate the risks of diseases through food, worldwide.
Food safety is a public agenda of World Food Safety which targets to:
It is worth mentioning here that there are around 200 different kinds of foodborne diseases (caused by harmful chemicals, bacteria, viruses, parasites) that have been identified.
"Statistical data shows that around 600 million people fall prey to such types of foodborne diseases, every year and among which children (below 5 years) and poverty-stricken sections are more prone to illnesses due to unhygienic food consumption," reported News18.
It's worth mentioning here that food safety entails a holistic approach towards securing food, right from the stage of harvesting, processing, storing, distributing to consuming.
An estimated 600 million cases of food-borne illnesses annually, unsafe food is a threat to human health and economies, disproportionately affecting vulnerable and marginalized people, especially women and children, populations affected by conflict, and migrants.
An estimated three million people around the world – in developed and developing countries – die every year from food and waterborne disease.
Every year the World Food Safety Day is observed adhering to a particular theme and for 2021, the chosen theme is Safe Food Today For A Healthy Tomorrow.
The theme was chosen to encourage the consumption of the right kind of food that would benefit both human beings and our environment.
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