Focus on food safety, governments urged as global event is marked

Amid the adverse effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, food security has become a major concern, especially to vulnerable communities across the world.

Many are now finding it more difficult than ever to put food on the table as the pandemic has impacted heavily on various sources of livelihoods.

Today, Kenya joins the rest of the world in marking the second World Food Safety Day (WFSD), which is marked on June 7.

The European Union (EU) has been at the forefront in supporting this important sector, which affects humans in health and wealth.

FOOD SAFETY CAMPAIGN

For close to two months now, an EU-funded project has been actively advocating for food safety measures especially in the wake of Covid-19.

This week though, the Market Access Upgrade Program (MARKUP), is intensifying the campaign, in line with WFSD.

MARKUP is implemented by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (Unido) in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture and the State Department of Trade.

The project aims at promoting competitiveness for Kenyan produce locally, within the East African region as well as on the international arena.

 SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCE

MARKUP’s food safety campaign, which is run through online and traditional media, targets food producers, transporters, sellers, chefs and cooks as well as consumers.

Last week, this campaign engaged social media influencers in a cooking demo for different delicacies, with focus on food safety and its importance.

“The chefs, all who have a huge following on social media, are supposed to show different ways in which they observe food safety,” says Stefano Sedola, Unido’s chief technical advisor for MARKUP project

He adds that different influencers had been selected to reach out to various demographical groups, depending on the age of their followers on social media.

COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY

Mr Sedola called for collective responsibility on food safety issues, saying it is the duty of governments, development organisations, individuals, professionals and all to take responsibility.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), about 600 million people in the world – almost one in 10 – fall ill after eating contaminated food and 420,000 die every year.

Children under five, WHO says, carry 40 per cent of the foodborne disease burden, with 125,000 deaths every year, while an estimated 700,000 people die around the globe because of antimicrobial resistant infections.

Foodborne illnesses are usually infectious or toxic in nature and caused by bacteria, viruses, parasites or chemical substances entering the body through contaminated food or water.