World Food Safety Day was established by the United Nations General Assembly in December 2018. The day is observed annually on June 7th to raise awareness about the importance of food safety and to promote actions that help prevent, detect, and manage foodborne risks. The initiative was spearheaded by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO), recognizing that food safety is a shared responsibility that affects everyone in the food chain.
The first World Food Safety Day was celebrated on June 7, 2019, under the theme “Food Safety, Everyone’s Business.” This annual observance emphasizes the need for everyone to understand the role they play in ensuring that the food they consume is safe and that standards are upheld at every stage, from production to consumption.
The Rwenzori region where GEDA Uganda operates is characterized with several food safety challenges ranging from post harvest handling, misuse of agro-chemicals, food borne illnesses, Contamination (Biological, Chemical, or Physical), consumer perceptions and ignorance among others. One other key issue of concern is the “Sanga meat” (rotten/unhealth meat) that people consume without considering the negative consequences. Amidst the leadership interventions, there is still alot that needs to be done to completely stop such consumption of harmful meat.
In trying to mitigate these challenges GEDA Uganda has aligned a series of activities to commemorate this day in Kasese by engaging the Local leaders, consumers, media houses, religious institutions among others to create awareness but also challenge the different stakeholders to act.
The commemoration continues our campaign of unsafe foods in our communities ranging from expiry products, the “nsanga meat” phenomenon, use of rodent poison in food preservation among others and we believe engaging different stakeholders will have an impact and cause a mindset change in our communities.
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