As Nigeria struggles with the outbreak of cholera, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), has called on all stakeholders in the food supply chain to take deliberate actions to institute a food safety culture in their operations.
The Director General of NAFDAC, Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, said maintaining a safety culture would mitigate the food hazards and risks that could compromise food safety.
The Director General, Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, gave the admonition at the 2024 World Food Safety Day with the theme ‘Food Safety: Prepare for the Unexpected’.
World Food Safety Day was established in 2018 by the United Nations General Assembly after it was suggested by the Codex Alimentarius Commission as a way of raising food safety awareness and promoting collaboration across sectors.
According to WHO estimates, globally one in ten people become sick and 420,000 die each year after consuming contaminated food which is attributed to the loss of 33 million years of healthy life with children under five years and other vulnerable groups disproportionately affected in the poorer areas of the world.
In developing countries, about $110 billion is lost every year on medical expenses due to unsafe food.
Adeyeye remarked that food safety is not only important for public health but a sine qua non for economic development and food security.
She emphasised that everybody has a role to play from the farm to the table to ensure that the food consumed is safe and will not cause damage to health.