The World Food Safety Day (WFSD), celebrated every year on June 7, reaches its sixth edition in 2024, gaining relevance worldwide. Its main goal is to draw attention and inspire actions to help prevent, detect, and manage foodborne risks, contributing to food safety, human health, economic prosperity, agriculture, access to markets, tourism, and sustainable development.
This year’s theme is “Food safety: prepare for the unexpected”. Food safety incidents can range from minor events to major international crises, such as a power cut at home, food poisoning in a local restaurant, a voluntary withdrawal of contaminated products by a manufacturer, an outbreak originating in imported products, a natural disaster.
Food safety hazards do not recognize borders. Globalization has led to a growing interconnection of food supply chains, thus increasing the risks that unhealthy foods pose and can quickly escalate from a local problem to an emergency of international level.
To be prepared for incidents that affect food safety, governments can commit to developing or updating national intervention plans for food emergencies, strengthening food control systems, increasing surveillance and coordination capacity, and improving communication with food industry and the public. Food industries can improve their food safety management plans, share lessons learned and collaborate among themselves, and improve their communication with consumers. Consumers need to be aware of how to report or respond to food safety incidents and understand the consequences of unforeseen events at home, preparing themselves to react appropriately.
“Food safety is everyone’s business” is the slogan of World Food Safety Day and urges the responsibility of each one of us to preserve safe food throughout the supply chain, from farm to fork. In every part of this chain, there are hazards that can cause contamination.
Let’s work together for food safety and good health!
