World Food Safety Day | Jun 7, 2022
World Food Safety Day 2022
Today is World Food Safety Day, an observation started by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2018. World Food Safety Day 2022 is a day of “safety first” messaging around the real danger of foodborne diseases, not to mention the broader community impact of safe food handling practices.
The good news is that agriculture technology — and technology in general — is advancing to provide new solutions at every stage of the supply chain. Read on to learn all about what this day means, and the strides being made to make the world a safer place to eat!
World Food Safety Statistics
In 2021, the International Food Safety Authorities Network dealt with twice as many incidents as it had in 2020. This is a similar year-over-year increase as it has been experienced every year since 2019. In the last quarter of 2021 alone, the organization had 33 alerts for Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes, which are biological hazards.
Hazards across all food categories often stem from improperly handled food and have the potential to cause serious illness, even death.
Who is World Food Safety Day for?
Most of us have a pretty clear picture of the “farm to fork” realities of food production. Food safety is relevant all along the supply chain: growers, processors, transporters, storage, grocers/sellers, preparers, and servers. Each of these entities faces a powerful responsibility to handle food safely, implementing practices that ensure the food people buy is safe to eat.
There is also an “everybody” component to World Food Safety Day. Many bodies, including WHO, work hard to equip communities and neighborhoods worldwide with safe food handling knowledge. The more we all coordinate to convey these important messages, the safer people around the world will be.
Check out resources from WHO for World Food Safety Day 2022.
Technology to Support Food Safety
At Dimitra, we see issues like this through the lens of our capabilities. Today, we reflect on how technology can support food safety:
- Food spoiling en route (undetected, still to be sold and consumed) is problematic. It’s also preventable with blockchain technology that can provide food recall communication, fast-tracking important messages, and keep people safe.
- New traceability measures are made possible with IoT devices. This has made life easier for vast numbers of smallholder farmers grappling with a large and inflexible supply chain, and also ensures the quality of what gets to market, and when.
- One aim of supporting food safety is to continue the fight against malnutrition in many parts of the world. This means not only the right production and distribution but the right quality. Soil sensors, satellite imagery, and other sophisticated technological solutions have the power to not only improve this year’s crop but further improvements year over year.
Dimitra Technology & Food Safety
The three technologies listed above are just a handful of the ways we at Dimitra are committed to making life better for people around the world. We’re proud to stand with government organizations, agencies, in-country partners, and a vast network of smallholder farmers worldwide.
To learn more about Dimitra — and the creative way our platform is supported by our cryptocurrency token, DMTR — go to https://dimitra.io.
The World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations co-created A Guide to World Food Safety Day 2022, which you can download here.
