Four-fold Benefits of Food Safety: Lives, Livelihoods, Nutrition and Environment

I am a relative newcomer to food safety, mainly thinking about it when I had a case of food poisoning. However, looking at the data, I have become convinced that food safety merits a central position in food systems. In global nutrition, we have increasingly adopted the mantra of "safe, affordable, nutritious food” - and we need to be more serious about the safe part.

Improving food safety offers four wins by achieving:

●     Reduced burden of disease directly linked to unsafe food.

●     Reduced economic loss throughout the food system.

●     Increased uptake of nutritious foods.

●     Reduced environmental impact from unnecessary food loss and waste.

Safe food saves lives - the World Health Organization estimates that illness from unsafe food causes 420,000 deaths per year. Up to 29 percent of diarrheal diseases are caused by unsafe food, leading to 200,000 deaths per year in children under five years of age.

Safe food saves money - the UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that in sub-Saharan Africa alone food losses result in $4 billion lost annually. Much of this food loss is from unsafe food. Producers, traders, processors, sellers and consumers all lose out when unsafe food has to be discarded.

Safe food supports good nutrition - our food systems are failing to deliver nutritious foods for women and children in the 1,000 day window. The most nutritious foods, including dairy, fish, meat and fruits and vegetables, are the most at risk of microbial contamination, including bacteria, viruses and parasites, which are the leading causes of unsafe foods. Foods cannot be nutritious if they are unsafe.

Safe food safeguards the environment - the food system is a major driver of the climate crisis, contributing one-third of green-house gas emissions and environmental degradation. Improving food safety can contribute to reducing unnecessary food loss and waste and prevent further strains on the environment.

This is why putting the safe into safe and nutritious food is compelling. What makes it even more compelling is that there are concrete actions to take now. I particularly like this story from my second home, Senegal. It focuses on improving food safety in the traditional fishing sector since fish are nutrient powerhouses for infants and young children.

The Feed the Future Dekkal Geej (“reviving the sea” in Wolof) program promotes sustainable fish production and policies that support fishers and businesses in Senegal's booming fish industry. Senegal is the second largest fish producer in West Africa. The program works with women's groups typically responsible for processing fish caught by traditional fishers. The most common processing technique is smoking, which produces lots of fumes that are bad for human health and the environment. The program has worked with distributors to promote the use of an improved fish smoker. The smoker not only reduces the environmental impact of processing, it also improves food safety and reduces loss of fish from spoilage. Women-owned processing groups now have a nutritious food source for their families and a reliable source of income.

“Fisheries are very important for food security," says Nionta Fatou Diatta, President of the Women Processors Income Generating Group in southern Senegal. "Not everyone has access to, or can afford meat, but fish is an available source of good nutrition. Fish from Kafountine are sent to markets throughout Senegal and even exported to neighboring countries like Mali and Burkina Faso.”

Improving safe handling and processing of fish also makes better use of this precious natural resource. Ms. Diatta stresses just how important fish are: “Fish must not disappear from our ocean. If fish disappear, it will be a true catastrophe.”

As the United Nations Secretary General convenes the Food Systems Summit this fall “to transform the way the world produces, consumes and thinks about food” we have an excellent opportunity to make sure it is amended to “ … about safe and nutritious food.”