Happy World Food Safety day!
7th June is World Food Safety day, and this year’s slogan is ‘Food Safety is Everyone’s Business’!
At Atova, it is not just our business, it is our passion, and we are dedicated to giving the best technical and regulatory support to ensure that companies producing novel and innovative foods can meet the food safety requirements that regulatory authorities such as EFSA (EU), SFA (Singapore), FSA (UK) and the FDA (USA) - among others - have in place to ensure that the food produced and sold within their regions is safe for human consumption.
This World Food Safety Day has five vital messages:
· 1. Ensure it’s safe - Governments must ensure safe and nutritious food for all
· 2. Grow it safe - Agriculture and food producers need to adopt good practices
· 3. Keep it safe - Business operators must make sure food is safe
· 4. Know what’s safe - Consumers need to learn about safe and healthy food
· 5. Team up for food safety – Let’s work together for safe food and good health!
Food standards are not the same world-wide, as we well know through navigating the different regulatory pathways! However, we are fortunate to be working with authorities that have stringent policies in place to ensure food safety, but this is not the case in some less developed parts of the world.
For this reason, the FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations) and the WHO (World Health Organization) created the Codex Alimentarus as a guide for universal food safety standards.
According to the FAO, The Codex Alimentarius is represented by 188 Member Countries and 1 Member Organization (EU) and has 236 standards, 84 guidelines, 56 codes of practice, 126 maximum levels for contaminants in food, and over 10 000 quantitative standards covering maximum levels for food additives and maximum residue limits for pesticides and veterinary drugs in food. (As of February 2023)
The Codex Trust Fund is a joint FAO and WHO programme which promotes world-wide engagement in Codex, and since 2016 it has supported 50 developing and transition economy countries to participate more effectively in Codex work.
This year the Codex turns 60, and alongside the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization, we celebrate food standards for marking out the path to safe food for everyone, everywhere.
Read more about it here https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-food-safety-day/2023
Did you know?…
Over 200 diseases are caused by eating food contaminated with bacteria, viruses, parasites or chemical substances such as heavy metals.
Antimicrobial resistant microbes can be transmitted through the food chain, via direct contact between animals and humans or through the environment. Each year, an estimated 5 million people die around the globe because of infections with antimicrobial resistant microbes.
Microbial, chemical or physical contamination of food can be reduced or minimized through the implementation of food safety standards. (Taken from WHO website)
Every day, food tech innovators are coming up with exciting ways to combat these problems, and are designing food production techniques that can provide food security and safety for the future. We are proud to be a cog in this very important food safety machine!
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