FOOD SAFETY FROM FARM TO FORK.

Governments must play active role in food safety. Governments have an important role to play in food safety to ensure it gets the attention and investment it deserves, according to a senior food standards officer with the Codex Alimentarius secretariat.. This means that a government needs to have a strong food control system. For many countries this is still a challenge, they are still working toward having the appropriate infrastructure not only to establish regulations for food but to implement them and help food producers to know what they are supposed to do. They can also play a role in bringing together the different players and sectors along the food chain and making sure everyone is aware of the importance of food safety,” Cahill said. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said every year unsafe food is responsible for thousands of deaths, which are all preventable. “This year’s World Food Safety Day is a reminder that we can all play a role in making food safer. From the time food is grown and transported to when people are shopping and preparing meals each of these is a chance to prioritize food safety. “Food production is a chain of events, it starts even before the farm as some of the inputs such as animal feed also contribute to the safety of food. We have to look at what happens at the farm, what happens after that in terms of harvesting, what happens then in terms of processing and transformation of the crops or animal products and then the transportation and retail sectors. At all of those points there is an opportunity for our food to be contaminated and become unsafe. Producers must keep hazards or contaminants out of food or make sure they stay at as low a level as possible, said Cahill. “So whether you are growing crops or rearing animals, good hygiene and biosecurity are important, good husbandry and veterinary practices and also good environmental waste management so you are producing food in an environment which minimizes the possibility for that food to be contaminated,” she said Adopted from food safety news.