Dr. Terence Lau, Convener of Food Safety Consortium (FSC) and Director of Innovation and Technology Development of PolyU was invited to share his view in the inaugural World Food Safety Day on the importance of multi-disciplinary collaboration and academia’s role on technology innovation to tackle emerging food safety challenges. His views were echoed by Mr. Frank Yiannas, Deputy Commissioner of U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Mr. Guilherme da Costa, Chairman of CODEX Ailmentarius Commission. FSC, as the only participant from Hong Kong, will make every effort to support this initiative by the WHO.
The World Food Safety Day (WFSD) was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly and first launched on 7 June 2019. The World Health Organization (WHO), in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), was pleased to facilitate Member States’ effort to celebrate the World Food Safety Day which debuts in 2019 and will be celebrated for the years to come.
“Access to sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious food is key to sustaining life and promoting good health. Foodborne diseases impede socio-economic development by straining healthcare systems and harming national economies, tourism and trade. With an estimated 600 million cases of foodborne diseases annually - almost 1 in 10 people in the world fall ill after eating contaminated - food safety is an increasing threat to human health. Children under 5 years of age carry 40% of the foodborne disease burden with 125 000 deaths every year.
Food safety is key to achieving several UN Sustainable Development Goals and is a shared responsibility between 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 cause damages to our health. Through the World Food Safety Day, WHO pursues its efforts to mainstream food safety in the public agenda and reduce the burden of foodborne diseases globally.”
- WHO, Celebration of World Food Safety Day
For more information about WFSD, please click here.
Watch the launch event of WFSD here.
