08 Jun 2020

Although food is an indispensable human need, it may be a silent vehicle for microbial, chemical and physical hazard and therefore a major contributor of food borne illnesses, Dr Lemogang Kwape has warned.

Delivering World Food Safety commemmoration message over the weekend, Dr Kwape, who is Minister of Health and Wellness, said WHO estimates on the 2007-2015 Global Burden of Foodborne Disease, found that almost one in 10 people in the world fell ill after eating contaminated food.

The global burden of foodborne diseases affected individuals of all ages, particularly under fives and persons in low-income brackets of the society, he says.

Minister Kwape stated that when food was not safe, children could not learn, adults could not work and human development could not take place and that was why safe food was critical to promoting health and ending hunger.

“Let us remember therefore, that there can never be food security without food safety and in a world where the food supply chain has become more complex, any food safety incident has global negative effects on public health, trade and economy,” he said.

He said the Food Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and WHO through the Codex Alimentarius Commission had clearly set out international food standards and these were meant to protect the health of consumers, ensure fair practices in food trade, as well as provide capacity building for countries to implement food safety systems.

Dr Kwape said food safety therefore remained the responsibility of all stakeholders in the food chain, from farm to fork processes.

  "Food safety is the assurance that food will not cause harm to the consumer when it is prepared and eaten according to its intended use," the minister said.

Dr Kwape Dr Kwape said it was therefore imperative that everyone had the right to safe, nutritious and sufficient food which was buttressed by this year’s theme “Food safety, everyone’s business”.

He said the theme stressed the importance of multi-sectional action in ensuring that food safety remained the responsibility of all stakeholders in the food chain.

Dr Kwape said government would continue to ensure safe and nutritious food through promoting sustainable agriculture and food systems, fostering multi-sectoral collaboration among public health, animal health, agriculture and other sectors.

He urged the agriculture industry and food producers to pursue good farming practices to ensure a sufficient supply of safe food while addressing potential risks to ensure food safety.

The minister said business operators would also have to apply preventive controls and programmes such as Good Hygiene Practices (GHP), Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and other measures to detect and prevent biological, chemical and physical contamination in food throughout their operations and also educate and empower consumers to make healthy choices.

In an effort to promote food safety, Dr Kwape said his ministry, in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, had demonstrated government’s commitment to ensuring food hygiene and safety by training over 3 600 primary school-based food handlers last year.

He also disclosed that his ministy was in the process of proposing a food safety bill to ensure a coordinated approach to food safety from production through manufacturing, transporting, distribution and retailing.

Dr Kwape pointed out that the world was facing an unprecedented threat from the COVID-19 pandemic, which had caused unparalleled social and economic disruptions.

Food industries had had to innovate production processes in order to ensure both availablility and safety.

He said although there was no substantial evidence to date of COVID-19 being transmitted via food or food packaging, it was critical to maintain the movement of food along the food chain as the “new normal” calls for strengthening food hygiene and sanitation practices as well as implementing food safety management systems. ENDS