The UN System Standing Committee on Nutrition welcomes this public consultation and would like to make the following contribution.
1.What issues should be addressed by the Committee in the biennium 2016-2017?
Issue is: Diet quality and food safety for food and nutrition security.
Description of the issue: The effects of diet quality and food standards, including private sector standards, on production, storage, transport, processing, consumption and trade patterns, especially regarding food and nutrition security need to be addressed.
2.Explain the issue and describe why you are proposing it;
In the Rio+20 declaration: The future we want, participants reaffirmed their commitment to enhancing food and nutrition security and the access to adequate, safe and nutritious food for present and future generations. Access to diversified, nutritious and safe food is a basic human right and is essential for food and nutrition security and achieving poverty reduction worldwide.
Food security is not only about producing or importing enough food often with a focus on dietary energy. It is also about ensuring the safety, quality and diversified nutritional aspects of the food people eat.
Consequences of not having access to affordable quality and safe foods are numerous: Foodborne and waterborne diarrhoeal diseases kill an estimated 2.2 million people annually, most of them children. Other serious health consequences including cancer, reproductive and immuneffects may be caused by microbial or chemical food hazards. Contaminants contribute to and accaserbate nutrition-related effects, e.g. mycotoxins and stunting, immunomodulation by mycotoxins or environmental contaminants, particularly affecting undernourished people. The rising global burden of noncommunicable diseases is a tragic consequence of food and nutrition insecurity and the fact that many people do not have access to sufficient, quality and safe food or choose not to consume these.
The problem is a global one which has different faces in different countries, but needs to be addressed globally, regionally, and at national and sub-national level.
3.What kind of activity do you propose to address this issue? Which kind of CFS workstream should be put in place to address it?
The issue should be addressed by a major workstream of the CFS or as a HLPE report and subsequent policy roundtable in the CFS annual plenary.
The UNSCN Secretariat
United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition
c/o World Health Organization
20 Via Appia, Geneva, Switzerland
Phone: +41 22 79 10456 ; Email: [email protected] ;
Website: www.unscn.org
UN System Standing Committee on Nutrition