First ever World Food Safety Day

Question: When was the first ever World Food Safety Day celebrated?
(a) June 5 2019
(b) June 7 2019
(c) June 4 2019
(d) June 8 2019
Answer: (b)
Related facts:

  • The first ever World Food Safety Day was celebrated on June 7 2019.
  • The theme of this day was “Food Safety, everyone’s business”.
  • Food safety is the handling, preparing and storing of food in the best way possible so to reduce the risk of individuals becoming sick from food borne illnesses.
  • WHO, in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is pleased to facilitate Member States effort to celebrate the World Food Safety Day this year and in coming years.
  • Access to sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious food is key to sustaining life and promoting good health

Food-borne diseases:

  • With an estimated 600 million cases of foodborne diseases annually – almost 1 in 10 people in the world fall ill after eating contaminated food.
  • Children under 5 years of age carry 40% of the foodborne disease burden with 125 000 deaths every year.
  • Food contamination is an increasing threat to human health.
  • Food safety is key to achieving several UN Sustainable Development Goals

Celebration in India:

  • Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare inaugurated the first-ever World Food Safety Day being celebrated by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
  • Dr. Harsh Vardhan unveiled a statue of ‘Gandhiji on a Bicycle’ installed at the FSSAI complex.
  • The Union Health Minister felicitated seven leading States/UTs based on the ranking for the year 2018-2019 for their impressive performance. These were Chandigarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
  • FSSAI has developed the first State Food Safety Index (SFSI) to measure the performance of States on five parameters of food safety. The categories included Human Resources and Institutional Arrangements, Compliance, Food Testing- Infrastructure and Surveillance, Training and Capacity Building and Consumer Empowerment
  • Clean Street Food Hubs certification in several cities based on third-party audits and training of street food vendors now declares Golden Temple Street, Amritsar as a ‘Clean Street Food Hub’.
  • Dr. Harsh Vardhan launched a new-age, hand-held battery operated device called ‘Raman 1.0’. This device performs rapid detection (in less than 1 minute) of economically driven adulteration in edible oils, fats and ghee.
  • A Web-resource online Library of FSSAI was also launched. This library hosts informative and interesting videos on topics such as food adulteration, eating a balanced diet, fortified foods etc.

Links:
https://www.who.int/news-room/events/detail/2019/06/07/default-calendar/celebration-of-world-food-safety-day
https://www.firstpost.com/world/first-ever-world-food-safety-day-on-7-june-makes-ensuring-safe-and-nutritious-food-for-all-everyones-business-6764921.html
http://pib.nic.in/PressReleseDetail.aspx?PRID=1573662