First-ever International Food Safety Conference opens: Driving the food safety changes needed to fix food security

13 Feb 2019 --- “There is no food security without food safety” – that is the key message coming out of the inaugural International Food Safety Conference (IFSC) which begun in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), yesterday. In a bid to give the issue of food security the political attention it deserves, delegates from around 130 countries – including health and agriculture ministers, leading scientific experts and representatives of consumers, food producers and distributors – are gathering on the world stage to drive the changes needed to improve food safety. The idea is to align strategies across sectors and borders, reinforcing efforts to reach the Sustainable Development Goals and supporting the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition. These include cutting the risks of foodborne diseases on an international level with the ultimate aim to ensure safe, nutritional and sustainable food availability.

However, in order to scale up food safety and meet sustainability goals, there needs to be a collectively strengthened commitment at the highest political level, according to one of the conference organizers, the World Health Organization (WHO).

WHO estimates that food contaminated with bacteria, viruses, parasites, toxins or chemicals causes more than 600 million people to fall ill and 420,000 to die worldwide every year. Illness linked to unsafe food overloads healthcare systems and damages economies, trade and tourism, it notes. The impact of unsafe food costs low- and middle-income economies around US$95 billion in lost productivity each year. In addition, unsafe food is a threat to human health and economies, disproportionately affecting vulnerable and marginalized people, especially women and children as well as populations affected by conflict and migrants.

These threats mean that food safety must be a paramount goal at every stage of the food chain, WHO stresses.

The two-day conference aims to galvanize support and lead activity in the key strategic areas for the future of food safety. According to the WHO, the inaugural IFSC is a “pivotal moment demanding urgent international reflection on actions needed to bolster food safety.” Priorities are being discussed so that food safety strategies and approaches can be aligned across sectors and borders, reinforcing efforts to reach the Sustainable Development Goals and supporting the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition.

Greater international cooperation is needed to prevent unsafe food from causing ill health and hampering progress towards sustainable development, world leaders said at yesterday’s opening session of the conference which comes ahead of the International Forum on Food Safety and Trade, in Geneva in April. 

Food safety must be a paramount goal at every stage of the food chain, from production to harvest, processing, storage, distribution, preparation and consumption, conference participants also stressed during the opening day. 

Ongoing changes in climate, global food production and supply systems affect consumers, industry and the planet. These changes can have an impact on food safety systems and pose sustainability and development challenges.

Technological advances, digitalization, novel foods and processing methods provide a wealth of opportunities to simultaneously enhance food safety and improve nutrition, livelihoods and trade, notes WHO. At the same time, climate change and the globalization of food production, coupled with a growing global population and increasing urbanization, pose new challenges to food safety. 

Solutions to these problems require “intersectoral and concerted international action.”

Food safety systems need to keep pace with the way food is produced and consumed which require “a sustained investment and coordinated, multi-sectoral approaches for regulatory legislation, suitable laboratory capacities and adequate disease surveillance and food monitoring programs”, says WHO. All of these factors need to be supported by information technologies, shared information, training and education. 

Climate change and its impact on global food production and future food security has been under the spotlight in recent months. 

Last October, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), issued a stark warning about the rapid onset of extreme weather. Limiting global warming to 1.5°C would require rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society, according to the report from the world's leading body of climate change experts. With clear benefits to people and natural ecosystems, limiting global warming to 1.5°C compared to 2°C could go hand in hand with ensuring a more sustainable and equitable society, said the IPCC report which followed three years of research.

Shortly after the IPCC report was published, an in-depth report from the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP) called for a total transformation of how food systems operate as agriculture and consumer choices are major factors driving “disastrous climate change.” Branding the current food systems “broken”, the IAP said that global food systems are failing and urgently need to be turned around to avoid catastrophic climate change. Key themes include the type of food produced and how to mitigate impacts through “climate-smart” food systems as well as dietary changes such as cutting down on meat. 

The International Food Safety Conference also closely follows the annual World Economic Forum which was held in Davos, Switzerland, last month to discuss some of the biggest risks to the global economy in 2019. The importance of sustainability and the key role the food industry plays was on the agenda. A report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation was also presented which stated how the current food system has supported a fast-growing population and urbanization, but it’s not sustainable nor is it healthy. The harmful impact of pesticides, air and water pollution necessitate a circular economy approach to the food system, the report notes. 

The International Food Safety Conference finishes today and international delegates will reconvene in Geneva from April 23-24. 

By Gaynor Selby