World Food Safety Day

World Food Safety Day is celebrated on June 7 annually, across the globe to highlight the importance of maintaining food standards. The day aims at inspiring the UN member nations to prioritise food safety standards and work collaboratively to protect consumers from foodborne diseases. The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations which sponsors World Food Safety Day has designated “Food Standards Save Lives” as the theme for 2023. This year’s theme coincides with the 60th anniversary of Codex Alimentarius, a collection of food standards, guidelines and codes of practice adopted by the international Codex Alimentarius Commission (with which FDA participates across many committees) to encourage governments and food safety advocates around the world to focus on the importance of applying safety standards in every aspect of food production—from the source to the table.

‘Ensuring Food Safety: A Global Priority’ – with this thought in mind the students of Middle School at The Indian School-Second Shift celebrated World Food Safety Day to spread awareness about how food safety can lead to a robust future.

The students of classes VI - IX celebrated this day by curating craft items to showcase the need to preserve lush green fields for our food safety, by using craft paper and recycled or reused items.

Urbanisw2ation has become an inevitable consequence of development. What were once lush green fields, settlements spread across acres of land have been cities with buildings, malls and commercial spaces jostling for space.

Interactive discussions were held in the classes regarding adulteration of raw food items and the use of excessive chemicals for high yield variety crops. The adverse effects of the excessive use of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers were also discussed. 

By the observance of this day, it was ingrained in to the students, that food safety is a shared responsibility of governments, producers and consumers. Everybody has a role to play from farm to table, to ensure the food we consume is safe and will not hurt our health.

Through the World Food Safety Day, the WHO exerts effort to make food safety a mainstream agenda in the public domain and reduce the burden of foodborne diseases globally.