Release – Though some may consider the theme for this year’s World Food Safety Day (WFSD), “Safer Food, Better Health”, obvious, few persons know that an estimated 600 million almost 1 in 10 people in the world fall ill a04fter eating contaminated food and 420,000 die every year. And startlingly, children under 5 years old carry 40% of the foodborne disease burden, with 125,000 deaths every year, according to The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
The United Nations established World Food Safety Day in 2018 to raise awareness about food safety. Observed on June 7, World Food Safety Day initiatives are held to highlight how to prevent foodborne illnesses, caused by bacteria, viruses, parasites, or chemical substances that enter the body through contaminated food or water. However, to tackle this issue, better data is needed to understand the far-reaching impacts of unsafe food and document the capacity of Caribbean countries to respond to, and in turn, develop climate-resilient food safety plans.