JISSA 2024: VSF-Suisse and OADEL join forces to reinforce safe and healthy food practices

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Extract from the article: Le monde entier a célébré le 07 juin la Journée Internationale de la Sécurité Sanitaire des Aliments (JISSA). Cette célébration vise à attirer l’attention et inspirer l’action pour prévenir, détecter et gérer les risques d’origine alimentaire, dans l

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On June 07, the world celebrated the International Day of Food Safety (JISSA). This celebration aims to draw attention and inspire action to prevent, detect and manage foodborne risks, with a view to contributing to food safety, human health, economic prosperity, agriculture, market access, tourism and sustainable development. The theme of the 2024 edition is "World Food Safety Day 2024: Prepare for the unexpected". To mark the day, the Organisation pour l'Alimentation et le Développement Local (OADEL), with the support of the NGO Vétérinaires Sans Frontières-Switzerland (VSF-Switzerland), organized a public conference on Tuesday June 11 in Lomé for all players in the food chain. The aim was to promote food safety in order to prevent food-borne diseases. The public conference also focused on the challenges and prospects of the certification mechanism for food handlers in Togo. 

According to the WHO, every year, one in 10 people worldwide falls ill after eating contaminated food, and children under 5 bear 40% of the burden of foodborne disease, including 125,000 deaths a year. Over 200 illnesses are caused by eating food contaminated with bacteria, viruses, parasites or chemical substances such as heavy metals.SSA must therefore become a priority for development.Food safety plays an essential role in ensuring that food is safe at all stages of the food chain, from production to harvesting, processing, storage, distribution, preparation and consumption.

Promoting healthy, safe food

Food safety is essential for nutritional security. This year, 2024, the International Day's theme "Food safety: prepare for the unexpected" is evocative, and aims to redouble efforts to ensure food safety, integrate food safety into the public agenda, and reduce the burden of foodborne disease worldwide.

For Dr. Géraud Hellow, Country Director of VSF-Switzerland, actions need to focus on promoting food safety awareness to reinforce efforts to prevent, detect and manage food-borne risks, while emphasizing the importance of being prepared for moderate or severe food safety incidents.

« We want to raise people's awareness so that food safety is improved.Every consumer must play his or her part in improving food safety, especially food from the livestock chain, whether it's milk, wagashi, meat or honey. Consumers have a major role to play when it comes to making purchases. Food handlers often do not have an advanced level of hygiene expertise. It's up to the consumer to make demands.By being demanding, this can attract the attention of retailers, to practice better hygiene, to better display food so that the consumer is less at risk of illnesses such as diarrhoea ». The Country Director of VSF-Suisse called on consumers, stakeholders, decision-makers and governments to invest more in SSA so that food becomes healthier.

« When we talk about food safety, we mean both the danger perceived by the consumer, or at least by the various players involved, and our various individual responsibilities. We alert consumers to the systems, mechanisms and awareness-raising actions in place to ensure the safety, control, wholesomeness and hygiene of food », emphasized Maxwel Atidigah, Program Coordinator at the NGO OADEL.

Bacteria such as Salmonella, Campylobacter and Escherichia coli are among the most common food-borne pathogens, affecting millions of people every year, sometimes with serious and fatal consequences.To this end, « food standards need to be tightened.Good practices must always be taken into account in the manufacture, storage and transport of foodstuffs.The aim of all this is to protect the consumer and balance national and international trade », explains Dr Raouf Mensah, Research Associate in Microbiology and Food Technology at ITRA.

Three themed presentations were given at the public conference: firstly, « Food safety: preparing for the unexpected; food handler certification mechanism, challenges and perspectives »; secondly, « Food standards save lives, MDA certification mechanism, challenges and perspectives »; and thirdly, « Food safety: Certification of meat and dairy products, challenges and prospects ».  These three themes were developed respectively by the Division Contrôle et Inspection Sanitaire (DCIS), the Institut Togolais de Recherche Agronomique (ITRA) and the Direction de l'Elevage (DE).

Preparing for food safety incidents

Role of public authorities: Commit to developing or updating national plans for food safety emergencies, strengthening national food control systems, increasing surveillance and coordination capacities, improving communication with food businesses and the general public.

Role of food companies: Improve food safety management plans, disseminate "lessons learned" and collaborate with each other; improve the way they communicate with consumers.

Role of consumers: To ensure that they know how to report or respond to a food safety incident, to ensure that they understand the consequences of an unforeseen event at home and know how to react.

The International Food Safety Authorities Network (INFOSAN)

In 2004, the Codex Alimentarius Commission revised the « Principles and Guidelines for the Exchange of Information in Food Safety Emergency Situations » and recommended that Member States select official contact points for the exchange of information in such situations. This led to the creation of the International Food Safety Authorities Network (INFOSAN). Today, INFOSAN is a global network of 189 countries, whose members are national food safety authorities and which is jointly managed by the FAO and WHO. INFOSAN facilitates the rapid exchange of information during food safety events, enabling the application of risk management measures to prevent foodborne illness and save lives.

William O.