World Food Safety Day (07/06)

In December 2018, the UN General Assembly, by its resolution (A/RES/73/250), proclaimed June 7 as World Food Safety Day.

The goals facing the international community in achieving sustainable human development are inextricably linked to issues of healthy and nutritious nutrition, overcoming not only the problem of hunger in certain regions of the Earth, but also achieving the principles of a healthy lifestyle, including through ensuring food safety.

Food safety — is the absence or safe, acceptable levels of food risk that may harm consumer health. Food hazards can be microbiological, chemical, or physical in nature and are often invisible to the naked eye, such as bacteria, viruses, or pesticide residues.

Food safety must be ensured all the way from the place of growth and production to the human table. Factors for the safe use of fertilizers and pest control products at the stage of growing grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables and berries, the safe production of meat products, poultry and fish, methods of their proper storage and transportation, as well as processing during cooking or eating should be taken into account. At any of these stages, products eaten or used for cooking may become a source of danger to human health if established rules for production, transportation, storage or proper preparation are violated. This hazard is primarily microbiological or chemical in nature.

A separate food safety issue is the culture of food preparation and consumption, where the consumer himself violates natural standards of hygiene, proper nutrition and basic principles of transporting, storing and preparing food for consumption.

All these problems cause significant harm to human health, in some regions posing a serious threat to it or being systematic.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), unsafe foods cause about 600 million cases of foodborne illness each year and pose a threat to human health and the economy. An estimated 420,000 people die each year from eating foods contaminated with microorganisms or chemicals. 40% of the burden of foodborne illness occurs in children under 5 years of age – every day 340 children under 5 years of age die as a result of preventable foodborne diseases. This primarily concerns developing countries, as well as the category of marginal groups and migrants in countries with developed economies.

It was WHO, together with FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN), that initiated the establishment of World Food Safety Day, since they have the most complete information and statistics on diseases caused by food, food poisoning, and also oversee those areas of society that are associated with food production and the provision of medical services.

By establishing this World Day, the UN aimed to attract the attention of states to the problems of healthy nutrition of the population, as well as the quality of food products produced. The call is addressed to both government agencies and food producers and their sales workers (farmers, agricultural workers, food industry workers and trade workers).

Among the proposed measures to overcome the problems caused by food safety violations are measures such as strengthening control by government agencies over the processes of growing, collecting, producing, transporting, storing and selling food products, improving the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of food diseases and improving the quality of information and education on health and nutrition issues.

Food safety – is the shared responsibility of the state, producers and consumers. Everyone must contribute throughout the food chain – from farm to dinner table, — so that the food we consume is safe and healthy. Ensuring food safety is everyone's business.



Infographics – poster «World Food Safety Day»

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