Facts
and Statistics on Food Safety
- Access to an
adequate quantity of safe and nutritious food is the key to sustaining
life and promoting good health
- WHO estimates
that unsafe food is responsible for more than 200 diseases, ranging
from diarrhea to cancers
- Nearly 1 in 10
people in the world get sick after eating contaminated food, and 420,000
people die every year
- Kids under five
years of age carry 40 percent of the foodborne disease burden, with
125,000 deaths every year
- Diarrheal
diseases are the most common illnesses from the consumption
of contaminated food, causing 550 million people to fall sick
and 230,000 deaths every year
- Unsafe food
creates a vicious cycle of illness and malnutrition, mainly affecting
infants, young kids, the elderly, and the sick
- Foodborne
diseases hinder socioeconomic development by straining health care
systems, harming national economies, and trade
What
Can We Do to Avoid Foodborne Illnesses?
Mishandled
food can lead to foodborne illness. Hence, it is essential to maintain
safe food handling behaviors through these following tips.
1. Check for
cleanliness
Cleanliness
should be maintained right from the beginning while handling the food.
Purchasing from a retailer who follows proper food handling practices can help
assure that the food is safe.
2. Keep
specific foods separated
Separate
raw foods such as poultry, raw meat, and seafood from other foods in
your grocery shopping cart to prevent cross-contamination. Place these foods in
plastic bags to stop their juices from dripping on other foods.
3. Check cans
and jars carefully
Avoid buying
food cans and jars that are bulged, dented, tampered, or damaged as it means
that the food was not adequately processed and is contaminated.
4. Inspect
frozen food packaging
Do not buy
frozen food if the package is damaged. Also, try to avoid packages that are
above the frost line as this could mean that the food package has either been
stored for a very long time or thawed and refrozen.
5. Choose
frozen foods and perishables at the end
Perishable
and frozen foods like meat, poultry, fish, and eggs should be the last items
placed in your shopping cart and should be immediately refrigerated after
reaching home to avoid food spoilage.
6. Be mindful
of time and temperature
To ensure
food safety, be mindful about the time and temperature of the food, for both
cooking and storage.
Conclusion
Food safety is
the key to achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs) and is a
shared responsibility between governments, producers, and consumers. Everyone
has a role to play to ensure that the food we eat is safe and will not cause
harm to our health.
So, let's join hands on this World Food Safety Day, to
reduce the burden of foodborne diseases globally.
References :- Celebration of World Food Safety Day - (https://www.who.int/news-room/events/detail/2019/06/07/default-calendar/celebration-of-world-food-safety-day)
- World Food Safety Day- 7 June - (https://www.un.org/en/events/foodsafetyday/)
- Commemorating the first ever World Food Safety Day - (https://fssai.gov.in/cms/world-food-safety-day.php)
Source: Medindia
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