World Food Safety Day Date in the current year: June 7, 2024

World Food Safety Day was initiated in 2016 by the Codex Alimentarius Commission, a body that had been jointly established by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) in order to develop a collection of internationally recognized standards ensuring food safety.

The next year, the initiative was supported by both of the Commission’s parent organizations. Finally, in December 2018, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring June 7 as World Food Safety Day. The new international day was observed for the first time on June 7, 2019.

Food safety is a vital aspect of food security. In the modern world, where international trade (including food trade) plays a huge role, any food safety-related incidents can have major negative consequences on a global scale. For instance, did you know that an estimated 600 million cases of foodborne illnesses annually result from consuming unsafe food? This illnesses disproportionally affect people in low-income regions, children under five, and other vulnerable and marginalized groups.

According to the United Nations, ensuring food safety is critical for reducing poverty and eliminating hunger, preventing foodborne illnesses, developing global trade, boosting agriculture, and increasing employment rates. World Food Safety Day was established to raise public awareness of the importance of food safety, as well as to remind consumers that they contribute to it as well.

The process of ensuring food safety is lengthy because the food supply chain has become more complex: it begins on farms where plants are grown and animals are bred, and ends on the plates of consumers. It is critical that food remains safe at every stage of the food chain, which includes production, harvest, processing, storage, distribution, preparation and consumption. When you buy products and prepare food, you become one of those responsible for ensuring food safety.

People often take food safety for granted, but you need to understand that everybody has a role to play to ensure the food we consume is safe for our health, including us as consumers. For this very reason, World Food Safety Day strives to mainstream food safety in the public agenda. According to the General Assembly resolution establishing this international day, the need to raise awareness and facilitate actions for global food safety is urgent, making World Food Safety Day an extremely important observance.

The UN General Assembly invites all UN member states and organizations, international and regional organization, NGOs, civil society and the private sector, individuals and other relevant stakeholders to observe World Food Safety Day. The observance is facilitated by the World Health Organization and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.