President calls for ensuring food safety to achieve SDGs

ISLAMABAD (APP): President Dr Arif Alvi on Tuesday highlighting the importance of healthy food said addressing the foodborne risks was important for safer food and better health.
In his message on the World Food Safety Day, he said the day is dedicated to taking action to prevent, diagnose, and control foodborne hazards to enhance human health and ensure access to safe food for everyone.
President Alvi urged the people to always eat meals from clean places, maintain good standards of cleanliness, and refrain from wasting food.
He termed food safety a part of Sustainable Development Goals which called for actions to end hunger, improve nutrition, promote sustainable agriculture and achieve food security.
He said the government should foster multisectoral collaboration to adopt food safety standards, launch public support programmes by focusing on healthy and safe food and introduce strong policies in this regard.
He called upon the food manufacturing companies to follow food safety commitments, promote food safety culture and comply with international and national food standards.
President Alvi said the educational institutions and workplaces should support food safety education, promote safe food handling and engage with families. He said consumers should also be kept informed, promote food safety practices and observe safe food handling at home. “We all have a role to play; whether we grow, process, transport, store, sell, buy, prepare or serve food, food safety is in our hands,” he said. “If we work together, we can all help achieve safer food for better health.”