About 200 people took part in the webinar: “La inocuidad en el año internacional de las frutas y verduras” (Safety in the International Year of Fruits and Vegetables), on 7 June for World Food Safety Day. Dr Rui Costa, Secretary General of the ISEKI Food Association and Dr Carmen de Vega, President of FEDALCYTA (the Federation of Food Science and Technologies Associations) opened the event, presenting the two organizations that co-convened the live seminar. The first presentation under the title "Fruits and vegetables: healthy is not [...]

On 7 June, Samim Saner, President of the Turkish Food Safety Association moderated the first of a week-long series of “Food Safety Conversations” to mark World Food Safety Day. This webinar was entitled simply “The World Food Safety Day panel: safe food now for a healthy tomorrow.” Guests from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO) and Turkey’s Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry talked about key food safety issues in their area of [...]

Dr Adriana Abud is a food safety expert who works forRede Savegnago Supermercados in Brazil. Last year, she introduced shoppers and supermarket workers to Dr Drika, her food safety “avatar.” And Dr Drika has returned this year, with new outfits for different supermarket departments. This year, Dr Abud has developed a number of World Food Safety Day materials to promote a culture of hygiene and good practice among managers, suppliers, staff and customers of the supermarket chain she works for. She [...]

Over the past 2 days, June 7 and 8, 2021, food safety leaders from across North America joined the North American Food Safety Summit, and I had the privilege of being one of the hosts for the event along with my friend, Dr Darin Detwiler at Northeastern University. Setting up a web cam feed that works for camera angles and manages all the scripts and notes effectively takes creativity. To get a good camera angle, I set up a step [...]

Fran Freeman, Chairperson CCFICS Australia hosted the first virtual session of the 25th Codex Committee on Food Import and Export Inspection and Certification Systems (CCFICS25) from 31 May to 08 June 2021. The work of CCFICS is crucial, particularly as we recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, in assisting global efforts to modernize food safety systems and deliver guidance that can influence regulatory standards related to food import and export inspection and certification systems. Virtual meetings can bring their own challenges – time zones never work for everyone! Although the [...]

On 9 June 2021, the National Quality Association of Tanzania (NQAT), a member-based association, which acts as a National Quality Platform for sustainable development, held a miniseries webinar about World Food Safety Day.   The miniseries which will be held every two weeks, was moderated by Mr Safari Fungo.   Among the concerns and recommendations that were raised were:  The importance of strengthening advocacy on consumer protection.  It is important to put emphasis on the implementation of food labeling i.e., work on putting warning signs on certain foods that may cause harm to the consumer.  The importance of stakeholders in the food safety [...]

In Tanzania, representatives of government, the World Health Organization (WHO) and Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) were all active across mainstream and social media on 7 June to promote World Food Safety Day. In a televised press conference, Rose Shija Muhangwa, on behalf of the WHO representative to Tanzania and Bwana Gervas Kaisi, Acting Director of Quality Control at the Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) held a joint press conference in which they each highlighted the collective responsibility of keeping food safe. “Citizens have [...]

As a national Codex Contact Point for North Macedonia, the Food and Veterinary Agency joined the global campaign in the celebration of June 7 - World Food Safety Day. The aim of the initiative was to bring together different stakeholders involved in the food chain and through a public debate to raise awareness for food safety as well as inform the public about the importance of preventing and managing the risks associated with food, promoting health, economic prosperity, agricultural development [...]

One of the first World Food Safety Day events this year took place in Australia in an event jointly hosted by Environmental Health Australia (EHA) and the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) of the United States of America. The aim of the event was, over a 24-hour period, to talk with food safety regulators from around the world to get an idea of the different – and similar – challenges, approaches and practices encountered in different countries. The Australian half of [...]

On 8 June 2021, Romania held a webinar 'From raw material to product' on the theme of food safety among food companies. Several representatives from food industry companies in Romania, an official from the Romanian National Sanitary Veterinary and Food Safety Authority and an official from the Romanian Veterinary and Food Safety Directorate held presentations about the measures they implement to ensure food safety inside the process chain, the overall food safety management, and defense, as well as the special measures implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. The discussions also [...]