6 June 2024, Cairo, Egypt – “Put together for the surprising” is the theme of the sixth World Meals Security Day, marked at the moment by the United Nations. Meals companies, governments and shoppers can all assist stop meals contamination and foodborne diseases.
Meals have to be protected at each stage from manufacturing to consumption. WHO and the Meals and Agriculture Group of the United Nations (FAO) collectively facilitate the worldwide day to boost consciousness of this challenge globally.
The Jap Mediterranean Area bears a considerable burden of foodborne ailments. In line with WHO estimates from 2015, 100 million folks residing within the Area expertise foodborne diseases every year – 32 million of these instances are kids aged below 5 years.
Foodborne diarrhoeal ailments attributable to pathogens make up 70% of the foodborne illness burden within the Area. About 37 000 folks a 12 months within the Area die from consuming unsafe meals, primarily attributable to foodborne diarrhoeal ailments, typhoid fever, hepatitis A and brucellosis. Meals security measures are very important to mitigate the affect of those ailments on well being and well-being within the Area and globally.
WHO estimates of the global burden of foodborne diseases
Moreover foodborne pathogens, pure toxins and artificial chemical compounds can also trigger some foodborne ailments. Numerous chemical contaminants in meals may cause severe noncommunicable ailments, together with most cancers; organ failure; and reproductive and developmental impairments.
The Area grapples with public well being challenges stemming from local weather change-related occasions equivalent to heatwaves, drought, flooding, and elevated transmission of zoonotic ailments. Humanitarian crises, different emergencies and political instability prohibit entry to protected meals, water and sanitation, in addition to entry to well being companies. Essentially the most weak and marginalized folks sometimes fare the worst.
This 12 months additionally marks the twentieth anniversary of the Worldwide Meals Security Authorities Community (INFOSAN), which facilitates the fast alternate of data on meals security occasions throughout borders and amongst members. Run collectively by WHO and FAO, INFOSAN allows the well timed implementation of threat administration measures to forestall foodborne sickness and save lives.
Meals security incidents can swiftly develop from native cases to international emergencies. Meals security emergencies can come up from contaminated meals within the home and/or worldwide markets, in addition to from disruption to meals controls and provide chain attributable to energy outages or battle. This makes it everybody’s accountability to work collectively to sort out meals security challenges, safeguard client well being and guarantee truthful meals commerce practices nationally and globally.
The WHO Regional Workplace for the Jap Mediterranean continues to guide and assist international locations of the Area to construct sturdy nationwide meals management methods and promote protected meals dealing with. In flip, this may assist obtain by 2030 the worldwide targets set out within the WHO World Technique for Meals Security 2022–2030.