World Food Safety Day 2024

World Food Safety Day on 7 June 2024, focuses on the theme of Food safety – prepare for the unexpected.

World Food Safety Day is led by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). As the WHO state, ‘World Food Safety Day on 7 June 2024 will draw attention to food safety incidents. This year’s theme underlines the importance of being prepared for food safety incidents, no matter how mild or severe they can be.

Food safety incidents are situations where there is a potential or confirmed health risk associated with food consumption. A food incident can happen, for example, due to accidents, inadequate controls, food fraud or natural events. While being ready to manage food safety incidents requires dedicated efforts from policymakers, food safety authorities, farmers and food business operators, consumers also can play an active role.’

The Directors of the Food Systems and Food Safety Division at the FAO and Department of Nutrition and Food Safety at the WHO – Corinna Hawkes and Francesco Branco respectively – explain further about World Safety Day in this video.

World Food Safety Day draws attention to the role assurance can play in contributing to food safety.

IIOA members provide a whole range of food assurance services, including the global food safety standard ISO 22000 which has over 50,000 sites certified across the global . Additionally, IIOA members offer a certification to a range other schemes, such as BRC Global Standards, FSSC 22000, GlobalG.A.P., IFS and SQF.

Further details of IIOA members’ food safety services can be seen here Food and Beverage – IIOA.

Specifically to assist assist public policy objectives relating to food safety, publicsectorassurance.org showcases a wide range of examples of how accredited conformity assessment delivers solutions to food safety and agriculture issues.

To understand more about the role accredited conformity assessment plays in delivering food safety, the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) has a range of podcasts focussing specifically on food safety.