Abdessalam Ould Ahmed, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for the Near East and North Africa, and Ahmed Al-Mandhari, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean Region, issued a joint statement on 7 June 2020 on the occasion of World Food Safety Day. The statement highlighted the crucial role of safe food in promoting health and ending hunger.

"Without universal access to safe food, the 2030 Agenda will be impossible to achieve. Everyone has the right to safe, nutritious and sufficient food. Safe food is critical to promote health and end hunger, two of the 17 goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

"If it is not safe, it is not food. Food security is achieved when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to food that meets their dietary needs for an active and healthy life. There are four dimensions of food security – availability, access, utilization and stability – and food safety is a critical part of utilization. But today, around 55 million people in the Arab States are food insecure.

Read the full statement: http://www.fao.org/neareast/news/view/en/c/1279507/

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©FAO/Alessandra Benedetti.

©WHO/