The first ever World Food Safety Day (WFSD) will be celebrated on 7 June 2019 to draw attention and inspire action to help prevent, detect and manage foodborne risks, contributing to food security, human health, economic prosperity, agriculture, market access, tourism and sustainable development.
As an initiative by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO), they decided to designate this day to food safety as an attempt to raise awareness of its importance.
Annually, there are 600 million cases of foodborne illnesses, and about 3 million deaths. This is a threat to both human health and economies. The launch of the World Food Safety Day is an exciting moment with a lot of hope and expectation that this will raise awareness of consumers on the importance of safe food, and urge policy makers and industry leaders to do their part, too.
If you would like to help raise awareness, you can post on social media using the hashtags #WorldFoodSafetyDay #ZeroHunger. It is a great opportunity to showcase some examples of the work you are doing around food safety.