Food plays a major role in our everyday life while healthy nutritious food helps promote overall wellbeing unhealthy ones lead to several illness. To mark the importance of healthy food practices, World Food Safety Day is observed on 7th of June every year. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) this day is marked to draw attention and mobilise action to help prevent, detect and manage foodborne risks, contributing to food safety and improvehuman health.
The theme for this year’s World Food Safety Day is, “Safer food, better health”, which stresses on the need for as holistic approach towards food system for better health in a sustainable manner to prevent food borne diseases. It focuses on the access of safe food which is essential for the health and well-being of people, animals and the environment. Only when food is safe, we can benefit from its nutritional value and the mental and social benefits of sharing a safe meal.
Safe food is one of the most critical guarantors for good health. Unsafe foods are the cause of many diseases and contribute to other poor health conditions, such as impaired growth and development, micronutrient deficiencies, non-communicable or communicable diseases and mental illness. Globally, one in ten people are affected by foodborne illnesses annually. With an estimated 600 million cases of foodborne illnesses annually, unsafe food is a threat to human health and economies, disproportionally affecting vulnerable and marginalised people, especially women and children,
Foodborne illnesses are usually infectious or toxic in nature and often invisible to the plain eye, caused by bacteria, viruses, parasites or chemical substances entering the body through contaminated food or water.
Food safety has a critical role in assuring that food stays safe at every stage of the food chain – from production to harvest, processing, storage, distribution, all the way to preparation and consumption.
Food safety is a shared responsibility between governments, producers and consumers. Everybody has a role to play from farm to table to ensure the food we consume is safe and will not damage our health. Through World Food Safety Day, WHO and Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) pursue efforts to mainstream food safety in the public agenda and reduce the burden of foodborne diseases globally.
“Food safety is everyone’s business” is the slogan for World Food Safety Day and urges that we all play a role in maintaining food safety throughout the entire supply chain, from farm to table.
Food Safety Authority
Directorate of Health & Family Welfare
Nagaland:Kohima
