Five Steps to Ensure Food Safety

FAO, WHO recommend five steps to ensure food safety

While the ready
access to safe and nutritious food is a basic human right, the recent
estimations indicate that consuming contaminated food – with bacteria, viruses,
toxins or chemicals – affects one out of 12 inhabitants of the earth, making
almost 600 million people sick and leading to over 420,000 deaths per annum,
the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World
Health Organization (WHO) report. 

Unsafe food does
not only causes through foodborne hazards over 200 acute and chronic diseases –
from digestive tract infections to cancer – but its accumulated costs go far
beyond human suffering, hampering socio-economic development, overloading
healthcare systems and compromising the access to global food markets, trade,
tourism and economic growth.

Considering these
facts, FAO and WHO call on all the engaged stakeholders in production, process,
sell or preparation of food, either being individual practitioners or corporate
or government-level entities, to put continuous efforts in keeping the food
safe. In this regards, the two UN agencies, particularly, recommend the below
five ways in which stakeholders can make a sustained difference in food safety:

1. Ensure food is
safe

National
governments are critical in guaranteeing food is safe and nutritious for all.
They have good reason to because unsafe food costs low-and middle-income
economies alone about US$95 billion in lost productivity annually according to
the World Bank. To reduce these costs, policy-makers can promote sustainable
agriculture and food systems, fostering collaboration among public health,
animal health, agriculture and other sectors. Countries should follow the
international standards established by the Codex
Alimentarius Commission.

2. Grow food safely

To ensure a
sufficient supply of safe food at global level while also minimizing their
environmental impact and adapting to climate change, food producers need to
adopt good practices. As food production systems transform and adapt to
changing conditions, farmers must carefully consider optimal ways to address
potential risks and ensure that food is safe. Integrating the plant and animal
health, for example, can help to counter antimicrobial resistance and cut down
on the 700,000 people worldwide who die from antimicrobial-resistant infections
each year.

3. Keep food safe

For business
operators, preventive controls can address most food safety problems. Everyone
involved in food operations – from processing to retail – must ensure
compliance with programmes like Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points
(HACCP), a system that identifies, evaluates and controls for significant
food-safety hazards. Beyond reducing the possibility of sickness, good
practices for processing, storage and preservation can also cut post-harvest
losses and help food retain its nutritional value as well as help business
maximize their participation in a USD 1.6 trillion global food trade.

4. Check that food
is safe

Consumers have the
power to demand safe and healthy food. Given the complexity of food safety,
consumers need access to timely, clear and reliable information about the
nutritional and disease risks associated with their food choices. Investments
in educating consumers about food safety have the potential to reduce foodborne
disease and return savings of up to ten times of each dollar invested. Consumers
need to be empowered to make healthy food choices for themselves and support
sustainable food systems for the planet.

5. Team up for
safety

Ultimately, food
safety is a shared responsibility. Governments, regional economic bodies, UN
organizations, development agencies, trade organizations, consumer and producer
groups, academic and research institutions and private sector entities must all
work together on issues that affect us. Collaboration is needed globally,
regionally and locally – across sectors within governments and across borders
when combatting outbreaks of foodborne illness globally.

FAO and WHO, being
the lead UN agencies in promoting global efforts to enhance food safety and
security and public health, calls on all involved parties to work together on
these critical issues that affect all of us, now and in the future. 

http://www.fao.org/iran/news/detail-events/en/c/1329779/