In a continuous effort of educating on food safety and to eradicate food poisoning and other foodborne illness, the Food Safety Awareness Week is held every last week of October in adherence to Presidential Proclamation No. 160, series of 1999.

More than people realize, food safety plays a significant role throughout the entire food chain. Food safety is the level of safety and sanitation of foods from food borne diseases, illnesses received from eating food that contains germs, bacteria, or viruses. According to WHO (2022), an estimated 600 million people – nearly one in every ten people in the world – will become ill after eating contaminated food, and 420,000 will die, resulting in the loss of 33 million healthy life years.

Controlling food safety generally requires knowledge of what can hinder its integrity and stability (WWF, 2020). Contaminations in food have a negative impact on food safety it can be caused by biological, chemical, physical, or radiological hazards, and they can result to food poisoning or food intoxication, which can result in mild to fatal health consequences such as vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, or even debilitating infections and long-term diseases.

Everyone needs food for nourishment, but sometimes food can cause health problems when not handled properly. Therefore, food safety is important for every individual to know so that consequences like illness would not happen. To ensure food safety, it is imperative that we pay careful attention to apply personal hygiene, prepare things with safety, and avoid cross contamination whenever we work with food in the kitchen.

The Food Safety Awareness Week emphasizes the enjoyable experience of eating while ensuring that the food we get is safe. As a basis, all sectors must share accountability for food safety. #AKAAlbastro/NASLabordo

References:

Department of Agriculture, n.d. Food Safety Awareness Week. http://rfu12.da.gov.ph/2-uncategorised/5374-food-safety-awareness-week#:~:text=From%20October%2025%2D29%2C%202021,of%20safe%20and%20clean%20food.

WWF, 2020. 5 Steps to Keep Our Food Safe. https://wwf.org.ph/resource-center/story-archives-2020/food-safety/#:~:text=Food%20safety%20is%20the%20proper,result%20from%20eating%20contaminated%20food.

World Health Organization (WHO), 2022. Food safety. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/food-safety