World Food Safety Day: History, Significance, Theme and Celebrations

Kris [email protected] June 03, 2021 | 01:32

World Food Safety Day: History, Significance, Theme and Celebrations

World Food Safety Day is observed every year on June 7 to draw attention and inspire action to prevent, detect and manage foodborne risks. Food and shelter are the necessities of life. Every human being has a dependency on food (including water), air, and cloth for their existence on earth.

Food is the catalyst for energy in our bodies. It provides all the essential nutrients, carbohydrates, fats, and protein in our bodies to sustain growth. This day contributes to food security, human health, economic prosperity, agriculture, market access, tourism, and sustainable development across the world.

World Food Safety Day: History

The World Health Organisation (WHO ) recognizes the global burden of foodborne diseases, which affect individuals of all ages. Particularly, children under-5 and persons living in low-income countries, as cited by India Today.

So, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed in 2018 that every 7 June would be World Food Safety Day. In 2020, the World Health Assembly further passed a resolution to strengthen global efforts for food safety to reduce the burden of foodborne disease.

WHO and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) jointly facilitate the observance of World Food Safety Day, in collaboration with the Member States and other relevant organizations.

World food safety day is observed on June 7 to draw global attention to the contamination of food and water. Today is the third anniversary of World Food Safety Day (WFSD).To this day, WHO tries to make efforts to reduce food-borne generated disease globally.

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World Food Safety Day: Significance

Safe eating is a goal for everyone, rich or poor, old or young. Since we need to be able to trust the food we eat is safe for us, World Food Safety Day on June 7 focuses on the safety process. The goal of the day 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, National Day Calendar cites.

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.

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World Food Safety Day: Theme

World Food Safety Day (WFSD), celebrated on June 7, 2021, intends to bring attention and stimulate actions that will help prevent, identify and manage food-related risks. They contribute to food safety, human health, economic prosperity, agriculture, access to markets, tourism, and sustainable development security.

World food safety day 2021 theme, “Today’s Safe Food for a Healthy Tomorrow,” emphasizes that the production and consumption of safe food will bring short-term and long-term benefits to people, the planet, and the economy.

Recognizing the systemic relationships between human, animal, plant, environmental and economic health will help us meet the needs of the future. The United Nations General Assembly recognized the global burden of foodborne diseases affecting people of all ages, especially children under five and those living in low-income countries.

In 2020 world food safety day, the World Health Organization decided to strengthen efforts on food safety to reduce the burden of foodborne illness. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) jointly facilitate World Food safety Day with member countries and other relevant organizations.

Photo: Youtube

World Food Safety Day: Celebrations during the coronavirus pandemic

The World Food Safety Day 2020 will be celebrated virtually due to the spread of COVID-19 disease. People will get a chance to interact with each other online, you can showcase your work, promote food safety locally and internationally, and learn from others as they interact with your content and share their stories.

Few ways to celebrate this day virtually are as follows:

1. By organizing creative events.

2. Use hashtag #WorldFoodSafetyDay2020 on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. You can send photos to [email protected] or tag @WHO @FAO on social media and @FAOWHOCodex, using the hashtag #WorldFoodSafetyDay

3. You can also conduct a discussion by holding an online panel with guest experts.

4. Conduct Online workshops or webinars.

5. Interview someone who has in-depth knowledge about food safety or someone who practices food safety measures well.

4 tips for food safety

Many of us think about the changes that make our lives happier and healthier and are determined to make them work. Sometimes changes like losing 40 pounds or training for a marathon are big and challenging, and they are so difficult in work stress, family responsibilities, etc., that we forget. But deciding to take small, simple steps to keep food safe is not a big or difficult task and can pay off big. So, here are some suggestions.

Clean

Be sure to wash your hands before, during, and after handling food. Hand washing can save more lives than any vaccine or medical intervention, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To do this effectively, wash your hands with clean running water (warm or cold) and apply soap. Rub your hands together to create foam and scrub well for at least 20 seconds. Then, use Air dry or a clean paper towel.

Separate

If you only have one cutting board, decide to get another one to prevent pathogens from moving from one food to another in what is known as cross-contamination. Use one for foods that you will cook, such as meat, poultry, and seafood, and the other for foods, such as fruits and vegetables, that will be eaten raw. In this way, the raw vegetables are not contaminated by the juices of the food to be cooked. When you get a new cutting board, get a dishwasher-safe one. The boiling water and strong detergent typically used in dishwashers can eliminate many bacteria.

Cook

Using a food thermometer, you can ensure that the internal temperature is hot enough to destroy any existing pathogens in meat, chicken, fish, and casseroles.

145 ° F for whole meats (Rest for 3 minutes before carving or consuming meat).

160 ° F for ground meat.

165 ° F for all poultry.

165 ° F for the casserole and the rest.

Chill

Similarly, it is good to get an appliance thermometer to ensure your refrigerator is 40ºF or less. Bacteria rapidly multiply between 40ºF and 140ºF. More bacteria, the more chance to get someone sick. Most refrigerators only have a cold–hot adjustment, so the only way to know the temperature is to put it inside a thermometer. It is good to keep one in the refrigerator to ensure the temperature is 0ºF or less.