World Food Safety Day: What It Means For You and How You Can Do Your Part

June 7th marks World Food Safety Day, and we’re serving up all the mouthwatering details of what this day represents.

If there’s one thing that 8 billion people have in common, it’s food.

Food is a staple in every culture you come across—Hawaiian, Chinese, French, Canadian, Senegalese, the list goes on…

Every country puts its own unique spin on the food that’s native to their land. Recipes get passed down from generation to generation. Tourists flock to get a piece of the mouthwatering action.

As much as everyone craves a tasty, homemade dish, there are things that we must keep in mind to ensure it’s safe, healthy, and nutritious to eat.

In this article, we’re giving you the deep dish on the significance of World Food Safety Day, what it means for you and your loved ones, and how you can do your part.

What Does World Food Safety Day Represent?

World Food Safety Day—adopted by the United Nations in 2019—is a day dedicated to “raising awareness that safe, healthy, and nutritious food is everyone’s right”, as Dr. Francesco Branca, Director of the Department of Nutrition and Food Safety, proclaims [1], [2].

This day shouldn’t be taken lightly, either...

600 million people worldwide get sick every single year just from eating contaminated food [3].

420,000 of those people die.

And out of every 5 deaths, 4 of them are children.

This can come from a variety of factors leading up to food landing on your plate. These factors include not washing your hands before handling food, mixing raw and cooked food during preparation, not cooking food thoroughly, not keeping food at safe temperatures, and not using safe water and raw materials.

By remaining conscious of these 5 causes, we can greatly reduce the chances of food getting contaminated with bacteria, viruses, parasites, and toxins, thus reducing the number of foodborne illnesses we see every year.

There are 7 food safety issues in the food market that we see in both developed and developing countries:

Microbial Contamination
Chemical Contamination
Food Adulteration
Misuse of Additives
Mislabeling
Genetically Modified Foods
Food Past Use-By Dates

These contaminations can take the form of E Coli, Salmonella, and Campylobacter, among others.

What Does Food Safety in America Look Like?

According to US Centers for Disease Control, 48 million foodborne illnesses arise in the US each year.

Yes, these illnesses must be recognized and handled carefully, but there is another epidemic plaguing our country…

GMOs, sugar, food dyes, and packaged, processed foods...

Since the introduction of the first ready-made meal back in the 1950s, food safety in terms of health and nutrition has grown bleaker by the year.

GMOs, sugar, and chemicals we can’t even pronounce line our grocery store aisles. The worst part—the vast majority of them are labeled as healthy.

Take Kellogg’s, for example. This $29.7 billion food company boasts on its cereal boxes that it’s a healthy source of vitamin D [4], [5].

So, rather than people just getting 15 minutes of sunshine each day, they’re led to believe that this sugar-filled cereal is their best option for this important vitamin.

It doesn’t stop there, though. Harmful additives show up in yogurt, ketchup, coffee syrups, salad dressings, and a whopping 53.8% of products on grocery store shelves [6]. And they’re not stopping there. The global Food Additives market is projected to reach $59 billion by 2025 [7].

3 Tips to Steer Clear from Unsafe Foods

Practice these 3 tips the next time you go grocery shopping...

Read the ingredient label before you put a food or beverage product into your grocery cart.
Strive to fill your cart with fruits and vegetables before heading down the aisles.
Reach for organic, pasture-raised eggs, dairy products, meats, grains, fruits, and veggies.

What You Can Do To Help Keep Food Safe

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) theme for this year is, “Safe food is needed today for a healthy tomorrow.”

From farm to table, all of us have a role in keeping our food safe. Whether you’re the one growing it, selling it, preparing it, or eating it, step up to the plate and do your part.

5 Action Steps We Can Take to Team Up Against This Crisis

WHO gave us 5 tangible calls to action that we can take to make food safe, healthy, and nutritious for all [2]...

Ensure it’s safe: Government must ensure safe and nutritious food for all
Grow it safe: Agriculture and food producers need to adopt good practices
Keep it safe: Business operators must make sure food is safe
Know what's safe: Consumers need to learn about safe and healthy food
Team up for food safety: Work together for safe food and good health

The Bottom Line

If you’ve been one of the 600 million people affected by contaminated food each year, then you know the pain that it causes.

The good news is that there are precautions we can all take to alleviate the burden that food illnesses bring.

Practice the tips and action steps mentioned in this article, and we’ll be well on our way to a healthier tomorrow.

Want to learn more?

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As always, be sure to consult a health care professional before adding anything new to your diet, supplement, or exercise regimen. NativePath and its materials are not intended to treat, diagnose, cure, or prevent any diseases. All NativePath material is presented for educational purposes only.