An oration on “Strengthening National Food Safety Systems Challenges in the era of Covid19” was organized at the DST NU-TEC platform on June 7, 2021 on the occasion of World Food Safety Day. Dr. Indrani Karunasagar, Director Projects and DST NU-TEC accorded a cordial welcome to the speaker and the participants. She introduced the aims and objectives of the DST NU-TEC and its benefits to young researchers of the country. In her welcome address she stressed on the theme of world food safety day “Safe food now for a healthy tomorrow” as well as on the concept of one health. Dr Iddya Karunasagar, Advisor, Research and Patents Nitte (DU) introduced Dr Allen Reilly recalling his early work in Asia on seafood safety and his stint at Natural Resources Institute, UK; as head of Food Safety Group at WHO, Geneva and his role in setting up and heading the Food Safety Authority of Ireland as its Chief Executive Officer. Currently, he is Advisor, WHO and Adjunct Professor at University of Dublin. The opening remarks was given by Dr. Satheesh Kumar Bhandary, Vice-Chancellor, Nitte (DU) wherein he mentioned India is self-sufficient as a producer and exporter of food grains and sea food to the whole world and which is a 10 billion US dollar business. Recalling that India is diabetes capital, he noted that consumers need healthy and safe food. He highlighted the measures being taken by the University to ensure and students and staff in the University campus get a safe and healthy food.
The orator Dr. Allen Reilly spoke about the challenges posed by COVID-19 outbreak on the National food safety systems and how the pandemic is impacting the private and government food sectors. Developing new food strategies is the need of the hour and mentioned the Global strategy for food safety (2022-2030) being developed by the WHO and FAO and brought to the attention of the participants on the importance of occupational health and safety measures that are essential for ensuring COVID-19 free food processing. He explained the possible sources of SARS-Cov-2 exposures in processing environment and strategies to reduce the risk of transmission in working environment. He suggested that the national authorities need to identify and prioritize critical areas of work in food sector and establish Food Safety Emergency Response Plans. He emphasized on the requirement of a robust contingency plan for communication (having dedicated websites and food industry liaisons) on food related risks as the integrity of food supply chain is vulnerable to food frauds during pandemic. He highlighted the need to have farm to fork strategy to endure food safety in the entire food supply chain. In view of the emergence of zoonotic diseases and antimicrobial resistance as a major public health issue, he emphasised the need to have a one health approach for a better alignment in areas of food, human health, animal health, and environment. Such an approach is key to managing risks at the human-animal-environment interface and could help tackle this pandemic as well as predict and halt the emergence of similar or worse challenges in the future. The oration was attended by faculty, students, food industry representatives and scientists from other disciplines from across the country.
Video Link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1RAhI-sKak
Event Date : 2021-06-07
Venue : DST NU-TEC
Last updated 2022-10-11 10:50:56