Government launches food safety information campaign
Ahead of World Food Safety Day on Friday, 7 June, Ministers Michael Creed and Simon Harris have launched a brand new Food Safety Information Campaign for consumers. The campaign's objective is to highlight the collaboration that takes place "from farm to fork" in order to uphold food safety standards.
Print4 June 2019
Ahead of the inaugural World Food Safety Day on Friday, 7 June, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Michael Creed and the Minister for Health Simon Harris, have launched a new food safety information campaign in collaboration with a range of agencies, industries, farmers and retailers. The overall objective of the project is to bring home the level of collaboration that takes place between those areas in order to uphold food safety standards through the production line from farm to fork.
Launching the campaign, Minister Creed said that World Food Safety Day is an opportunity to reflect on Ireland’s world class food safety systems. “These systems help to ensure that the food we produce is safe, authentic and traceable,” said the Minister. “The high standards to which we hold ourselves are recognised by consumers here, but also in the many countries worldwide to which Irish food and drinks are exported.“
The theme of World Food Safety Day 2019 is “Food Safety, everyone’s business”. All links in the food chain, whether they produce, process, sell or prepare food, have a role in keeping it safe. Farmers, processors and business operators must adopt good practices to ensure that the risks to food safety are properly addressed.
The Minister also noted that this year’s campaign is directed at consumers, stating that consumers play a significant role, both by taking appropriate precautions when preparing food and by ensuring that they keep themselves informed about the food they eat.
Also speaking at the launch, the Minister for Health Simon Harris said that food safety is of paramount importance to individuals’ health and well-being in Ireland and further afield. “A food supply that is adequate in quantity, quality, accessibility and safety is undoubtedly a prerequisite for achieving and maintaining the health of Ireland’s population,” Harris said. “When food safety is not taken seriously, it not only significantly affects health and wellbeing, but also has economic consequences for individuals, families, communities, businesses and countries and can impose a substantial burden on healthcare systems and markedly reduce economic productivity.”
Dr Pamela Byrne, Chief Executive, FSAI added that with almost 50,000 food businesses in Ireland, each and every one has a legal responsibility to ensure that the food they provide to consumers is as safe as possible. “The FSAI was one of Europe’s first food safety regulators,” said Byrne. “Now every country has one which provides an international network for sharing science and knowledge. This collaboration is of immense benefit not just today but indeed every day where shared experience and scientific knowledge underpins our deliberations and policies that ultimately protect consumer health.”
One of the main points of the new campaign is to remind consumers never to wash raw chicken in the home before cooking it. Washing raw chicken does the complete opposite to cleaning it and can also spread food poisoning germs around your kitchen.
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