UNIDO celebrates World Food Safety Day 2021
The World Food Safety Day was celebrated among UNIDO Member States worldwide with the messages of “Food safety is everyone’s business” and “Safe food now for a healthy tomorrow.” Several global events were organized around this special occasion last week, where UNIDO has also actively participated in, including a dialogue on World Health Organization (WHO) upcoming Global Food Safety Strategy, WHO Webinar on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicators and Food Safety, and the Advisory Group for the Africa Union (AU) Food Safety Strategy.
UNIDO was involved in several virtual and in-person events held in the AU, Cambodia, Armenia, and Ethiopia to emphasize the need to improve food safety practices and capacities. In Armenia, a wide range of high-level participants took part in an event to discuss the food safety capacity building needs of the country, representing Ministry of Economy, Food Safety Inspection Body, development agencies, trade relations with the Russian Federation, educational institutions, NGOs, and private companies. In a virtual event in Cambodia, representatives from the EU Delegation in Cambodia, Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Economy and Finance, and UNIDO agreed that data should be a tool to identify possible solutions in food safety, strong partnership among academia, public and private sector required, and innovation and research in food sector should be demand driven.
Finally, UNIDO in collaboration with Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) has launched a partnership platform for voluntary third-party assurance (vTPA) approach, where private food safety certification owners, certification providers, and development partners have joined forces to support pilot projects in West Africa and Central America. Marlynne Hopper, Deputy Head of STDF noted “I am delighted to see the leadership ability of UNIDO in establishing this partnership for the pilot.” The platform will allow to synergize efforts among public and private partners and also help some members to replicate these practices in other continents.
For further information contact Gabor Molnar (G.Molnar [at] unido.org (G[dot]Molnar[at]unido[dot]org))
