Jamaica celebrates World Food Safety Day on June 7

JAMAICA will join the rest of the world on June 7 in the second staging of World Food Safety Day (WFSD), under the theme 'Food Safety, Everyone's Business'.

Citing data from the World Health Organization (WHO), which shows that an estimated 600 million people fall ill, and 420,000 people die every year from eating contaminated food, chairperson of the National Codex Committee, Dr Suzan McLennon-Miguel, is urging Jamaicans to pay greater attention to the way food is grown, prepared, sold, and consumed.

Dr McLennon-Miguel, in emphasising the importance of food safety as a shared responsibility, said, “Food is essential for health. It is important that what we eat remains safe.”

The Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, in collaboration with local stakeholders, said it will be ensuring that the country's food safety standards are compliant with those stipulated under local, regional, and international regulations and standards.

Critical to these efforts will be the strengthening of the institutional capacity within the ministry, it said. This includes the training of technical officers at the Rural Agricultural Development Authority in good agricultural and manufacturing practices, and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points accreditation of laboratories, border surveillance, and instituting inspectorate bodies for plants, animals and the fisheries sector.

Dr McLennon-Miguel pointed out that activities in observance of WFSD will commence on June 1 and will go up to June 12, and will include a food safety webinar to be held on June 9.