Last-minute registrations for FairPlay and Food For Mzansi’s free food safety webinar are now accepted. This, as a top panel of experts have now been confirmed for Thursday’s discussion on some of South Africa’s most critical food safety challenges.
The hour-long webinar, which will be live-streamed on all of Food For Mzansi’s platforms, kicks off at 14:00. Panellists include Matlou Setati, executive for the Food Safety Initiative at the Consumer Goods Council of South Africa, and Dr Hein Nel, executive director at the Food Safety Agency.
Professor Kris Willems, the former executive dean of the faculty of engineering technology at KU Leuven University, will also be joining live from Belgium.
REGISTER HERE: Webinar on food safety
A major public health issue
Hosted by FairPlay’s well-known founder, Francois Baird, and Dawn Noemdoe, Food For Mzansi’s editor: audience and engagement, the webinar will discuss how farmers, distributors, retailers, policymakers and consumers all have a role to play in food safety as a significant public health issue.
Baird believes that access to safe and affordable food is critical for survival, and is a fundamental right for every South African. Consumers expect (and deserve) protection from the risks and potential harms that can result from unsafe food. In addition, direct lines can be drawn between issues of food security to the issues of food safety.
Not only is access to safe and nutritious food critical to sustaining life and livelihoods, but unsafe food can spawn a cycle of disease and malnutrition, particularly for the more vulnerable members of society, from infants and the elderly to the sick and infirm.
Food safety is intrinsically linked to public health, which is linked to economic security and, in turn, prosperity. Increased local production of food can bridge the gap between food security and food safety, while affording more opportunities for economic growth.
It must be underpinned by strict regulation, from the hygiene requirements of food production facilities to tracking and tracing of potentially contaminated food to keep it out of the mouths of an unsuspecting public.
South Africans need a greater awareness of the risks of potentially contaminated food. This includes greater regulatory intervention in monitoring farms and imports, but also curbing predatory trade practices such as dumped imports which may be contaminated or of poor quality.
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