Food safety affects everyone - we all need to eat. However, too many people face challenges from unsafe food, and unsafe food can't nourish. Foodborne illnesses come from many different sources, and in severe cases can lead to tragic outcomes. Around 420 000 people die every year from unsafe food, while the economic losses from productivity and medical expenses run over USD 100 billion.
Food safety must be considered along the whole supply chain, including farmers, processors, retailers, and consumers - and deserves greater attention from food systems actors.
In this episode of Bite The Talk, we unpack what Food Safety means in 2021 with Bonnie McClafferty, the Food Safety lead at GAIN. Bonnie shares experiences of the EatSafe project, as well as reflections on how food safety concerns have been both linked to the COVID-19 pandemic and amplified by it.
With food safety rising up the agendas of governments, businesses, and other stakeholders, as well as new technological and policy innovations on the horizon, is there a hopeful future for safer, more nourishing food, from safe food systems? We certainly hope so.