This year’s WHO theme is “Food Safety: Preparing for the Unexpected.”
World Food Safety Day will focus on food safety incidents on 7 June 2024. This year’s theme highlights the importance of being prepared for food safety incidents, whether they are minor or severe.
A food safety incident is a situation where there is a potential or confirmed health risk associated with the consumption of food. Food incidents can occur due to accidents, improper management, food fraud, natural disasters, etc. Managing food safety incidents requires committed efforts from policy makers, food safety authorities, farmers and food businesses, but consumers can also play an active role.
Consuming enough safe, nutritious food is key to sustaining life and promoting health. Unsafe food, containing harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites and chemicals, can cause more than 200 diseases, from diarrhea to cancer. Worldwide, an estimated 600 million people (almost 1 in 10) become ill each year from eating contaminated food, resulting in 420,000 deaths and 33 million healthy life years (DALYs) lost.
Food safety, nutrition and food security are closely linked. Unsafe food creates a vicious cycle of disease and malnutrition, particularly affecting infants, young children, the elderly and the sick. A safe food supply not only contributes to food and nutrition security, but also supports a country’s economy, trade and tourism, stimulating sustainable development. Globalization of food trade, a growing world population, climate change and rapidly changing food systems affect food safety. WHO aims to strengthen capacities to prevent, detect and respond to public health threats related to unsafe food, at global and country levels.
