Celebrating World Food Safety Day 2021

Every year, June 7 is celebrated as World Food Safety Day. The event aims to draw attention and inspire action to help prevent, detect and manage foodborne risks, contributing to food security, human health, economic prosperity, agriculture, market access, tourism and sustainable development. Recognizing the global burden of foodborne diseases, which affect people of all ages, in particular children under-5 and persons living in low-income countries, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed in 2018 that every 7 June would be World Food Safety Day. 

This year’s theme, ‘Safe food today for a healthy tomorrow’, emphasizes on the fact that production and consumption of safe food has immediate and long-term benefits for people, the planet and the economy. 

When it comes to food safety, everyone has a role to play from farm to table to ensure the food we consume is safe and healthy. Through the World Food Safety Day, WHO works to mainstream food safety in the public agenda and reduce the burden of foodborne diseases globally. 

In the wake of the global pandemic, food safety has become more important than ever. And in order to guard your and your family’s health, here are four basic steps for food safety you could follow at home. 

1. Clean: Always wash your food, hands, counters, and cooking tools. Wash hands with soap for at least 20 seconds before and after you touch the food. Wash your cutting boards, dishes, forks, spoons, knives, and countertops with hot soapy water. Do this after working with each food item. Alternatively, you could even use a cleaning agent. Rinse fruits and veggies thoroughly, even if you are buying organic produce.

2.  Separate: Germs can spread from one food to another so keep everything apart, especially raw foods. Keep raw meat, poultry, seafood, and eggs away from other foods. This applies to when you keep the foods in your shopping cart, bags, and fridge too. Use a special cutting board or plate for raw foods only.

3. Cook: Foods need to get hot and stay hot. Heat kills germs. Use a food thermometer to make sure that food is done. You can’t always tell by looking.

4. Chill: To the ones that this can be applied to, put food in the fridge right away. You should ideally put foods in the fridge or freezer within 2 hours of cooking or buying from the store. Do this within 1 hour if it is 90 degrees or hotter outside. Never thaw food by simply taking it out of the fridge. Allow food to thaw in the fridge or you could also put it under cold water or in the microwave. 

At New Indian Supermarket, we strive to offer you only the best groceries while maintaining top-notch health and safety standards. And while we do everything we can to make sure you and your loved ones stay healthy, we urge and encourage you to follow the above steps even with food that you buy from our store.