Ban Ki-moon, former Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), expressed support for creating a World Food Safety Day on the margins of this year’s International Dairy Federation World Dairy Summit in Daejeon, Korea, where he gave the keynote address on 15 October. “The development of a World Food Safety Day in the UN is good idea,” he said, recalling that the process to establish UN observances is driven by Member States.

In a meeting with Tom Heilandt, Codex Secretary, and Professor Yong Ho Park, Chairperson of the Codex Task Force on Antimicrobial Resistance, Ban identified his two most meaningful moments during his ten years as UN Secretary-General. He said that when the leaders of the world, including the Pope, came to the UN to adopt the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and again when they adopted the Paris Agreement on Climate Change stood out as the most significant occasions. “I think that those were moments when all the leaders, all the people, were united with the firm belief that this is the only way and that can really enable us human beings to live together with nature, for a better future,” he said.

“We think food safety is one of the forgotten things,” Heilandt told Ban. “You don't care about it until you fall sick – but when you have a food safety problem, then you think, ‘why isn't the food safe?’, you expect it to be safe.”

Heilandt noted that the Republic of Korea already has a national Food Safety Day. Park added that Korea has been observing the importance of food safety on 14 May for many years (since 2002), and as a Member of Codex and the United Nations ‘is willing to join the World Food Safety Day on 7 June.’

The draft resolution for World Food Safety Day is being discussed at the UN General Assembly Second Committee.

In his keynote speech, Ban congratulated IDF and noted the ways the dairy food chain helps achieve the SDGs - especially SDG 1, which is about poverty eradication, SDG 2, which aims for zero hunger and SDG 3, which promotes good health and well-being. He emphasized that healthy and safe food are important to all humanity, our quality of life and well-being.

Judith Bryans, the President of IDF, said that IDF is working for nutritious and high quality dairy products for world health and free trade. Since the birth of Codex, IDF has been collaborating with Codex to develop international food standards aimed at protecting health and facilitating trade.

The International Dairy Federation World Dairy Summit 2018 is taking place in Daejeon, Korea on 15-19 October 2018. About 1 500 people from about 50 countries attend this conference to discuss for ‘Dairy for the Next Generation’.  

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