Food safety, everyone’s business!

Food safety, everyone’s business

Today the Food Standards Agency (FSA) is celebrating the first ever World Food Safety Day by highlighting the UK’s internationally recognised food alerts system.

While it is rare for food to be removed from the market because there is a problem, there are several reasons why food may need to be recalled. For example, if the allergen information on a label is inaccurate, or if there are concerns around food poisoning bacteria such as salmonella.

Dr Colin Sullivan, Chief Operating Officer at the Food Standards Agency, said: “We’re very pleased to be supporting World Food Safety Day. One of the key ways we help ensure food is safe is through publishing food alerts which tell you about products that have been removed from sale, so you can take action to keep safe.

“We issued 72 food recalls and 103 allergy alerts in 2018 and we make every effort to make sure we publish our alerts as soon as we can and with information that is both useful and clear. Our advice to people is always based on the best science and evidence available. I’d encourage everyone to sign up for our food alerts service, to get immediate updates when product recalls and allergy alerts are published.”

Steve Wearne, Director of Science at the Food Standards Agency and Vice Chair of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, said: “We are proud to be celebrating the first ever World Food Safety Day, it is great to have an international day to draw attention and inspire action to help prevent, detect and manage foodborne risks.

“Today is an opportunity to strengthen efforts to ensure the food we eat is safe. Food Safety is everyone’s business, whether you produce, process, sell or prepare food, then you have a role in keeping it safe. We are pleased to play our part in making sure people can trust their food, particularly through working with local authorities and food businesses when a recall is required.”

Sign up to the food alerts and allergy alerts, so you can be the first to hear if there is a recall. https://www.food.gov.uk/news-alerts/subscribe

FSA Explains

A recall is when unsafe food is removed from the supply chain and consumers are advised to take appropriate action, for example, to return or dispose of the unsafe food.

Note to reader:

The Codex Alimentarius Commission develops and adopts food standards that serve as a reference for international food trade.

On 20 December 2018 the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution 73/250 proclaiming a World Food Safety Day.

This year World Food Safety Day reinforces the call to strengthen commitment to scale up food safety made by the Addis Ababa Conference and the Geneva Forum under the umbrella of “The Future of Food Safety” in 2019