Science and Codex guidelines help food businesses By Leon Gorris, Secretary of the International Commission on Microbiological Specification for Foods (ICMSF) Ensuring food safety is a public health priority and an essential step to achieving food security. While we are celebrating World Food Safety Day on 7 June 2020, we remind ourselves that food safety is everyone’s business. We all play a role, e.g. food growers, processors, distributors, retailers and consumers. Around the globe about 7 Million people have been infected by the coronavirus disease: [...]

To commemorate World Food Safety Day, the competent authorities responsible for food safety in Nicaragua led several awareness-raising, knowledge-enhancing and team-building initiatives in June 2020. The initiatives were joint efforts coordinated by the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Development, Industry and Commerce, the Institute of Protection and Agricultural Security, as well as the INFOSAN and the Codex Alimentarius offices. Information products about “Food safety, everyone’s business”, the theme for the 2020 observance, were shared in a variety of ways, reaching [...]

On 9 June 2020, there was a flurry of activity around #WFSDchat, the hashtag chosen to abbreviate World Food Safety Day for the online conversation organized by @FoodSystems,  About 185 users engaged in the chat, which consisted of 520 tweets with the hashtag, potentially reaching more than 4 million users. The chat centred on six questions that covered topics such as how current global challenges like climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic are affecting safety and what consumers can do to [...]

To celebrate the second World Food Safety Day, at the end of May, the College of Food Science and Engineering of Qingdao Agricultural University organized a research team to carry out activities, with the aim of “using their professional advantage to help young people eat healthy”. Activities were operated by online questionnaire and offline survey, due to COVID-19 pandemic. The team designed a questionnaire from the aspects of regular work schedule and healthy diet to investigate the diet, nutrition, health and [...]

The European Green Deal sets out how to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. The Farm to Fork Strategy is at the heart of the Green Deal. The strategy is also central to the European Commission’s agenda to achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. A shift to a sustainable food system can bring environmental, health and social benefits, offer economic gains and ensure that the recovery from the crisis puts us onto a sustainable path. The European Union [...]

Members from one of the most diverse regions in Codex met online on 26 May 2020 to review the status of the disrupted Codex meeting schedule and explore how to best proceed with work in the committee ahead of the next session. Timothy Tumukon, Vanuatu, Regional Coordinator, for the Coordinating Committee for North America and the South West Pacific (CCNASWP), said attendance from around the globe “showed the commitment from all countries to work of Codex and food safety, especially in [...]

TV news report from Senegal (in French) on the celebrations for World Food Safety Day. Radiodiffusion Télévision Sénégalaise: http://live.rts.sn/home/player/11859        

In early June 2020, the Afrotropic Cocoa Processing Company Ltd in Accra, Ghana marked World Food Safety Day with a series of initiatives. All workers were reminded of issues that could bring about food safety problems or foodborne illness. This information was conveyed through pep talks at the start of every shift as well as the use of visuals, which included a poster on the ’Ten Golden Rules of Food Safety’ and the 2020 FAO/WHO campaign materials. WFSD in grand style [...]

To commemorate World Food Safety Day, the Independent Health Regulatory Entity (ERIS), the Chamber of Commerce (CCISS), the representation of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Cabo Verde and the Association for the Defense of Consumers (ADECO), met with the press to highlight the theme of the celebration: "Food safety, everyone's responsibility". Read the full story in Portuguese: https://www.eris.cv/index.php/noticias/1630-eris-e-parceiros-assinalam-dia-mundial-da-seguranca-sanitaria-dos-alimentos  

The National Institute for Drug and Food Surveillance (Invima) of Colombia developed an audiovisual campaign to raise awareness of the importance of food safety, explaining the measures taken by the authorities along the food chain to ensure the safety of the food consumed by Colombians, including also examples of actions implemented at different Departments of the country. Through a series of videos and graphic cards, Invima also aims to promote safe food handling behaviors with the WHO Five Keys to [...]