World Food Safety Day 2025: Preventing Foodborne Illnesses at Home

World Food Safety Day 2025: It is well said that “what you eat is what you become”. Our physical and mental health depends on the kind of food we consume. If we consume contaminated food knowingly or unknownigly regularly, it can harm our body in ways we can never imagine!

This initiative was taken to draw attention and inspire action to help prevent, detect and respond to public health threats associated with unsafe food.

World Food Safety Day 2025 Theme

Science is at the heart of food safety. It helps us understand what makes food unsafe and guides us on how to prevent foodborne diseases. With this thought in mind, Dr Luz Maria De Regil Director, Department of Nutrition and Food Safety, WHO and Corinna Hawkes Director of the Food Systems and Food Safety Division, FAO carried out this year’s theme. The theme of World Food Safety Day 2025 is “Food Safety: Science in Action”. The theme highlights the role science plays in ensuring food safety across the life cycle of food. From farm to fork the food undergoes a number of treatments and procedures all of which need to ensure that the final product is safe to consume by an individual. Right from sowing the seed or animal feed to the final cooked meal on the table, the need for an internationally compliant regulatory framework cannot be undermined.

Importance of World Food Safety Day

Foo’s safety cannot be emphasised more as it is directly linked with our well being. Our diet decides our health and sustainability of disease free life. The list of disadvantages of neglecting food safety is as long as The Great Wall of China. There are numerous diseases which can be caused as well due to poor food safety.

World Food Safety Day is an important way of:

1. Making people aware of food safety issues

2. Demonstrating how to prevent illness through food safety

3. Discussing collaborative approaches to improved food safety across sectors

4. Promoting solutions and ways of being more food safe

Chemicals in Food Containers and Medical Equipment Linked to Surge in Heart Disease Deaths: Lancet Study

Best Practices to Prevent Foodborne Illnesses

Now that we know how important food safety actually is. In this article we shall be discussing preventive measures to be taken for foodborne illness at home.

Every year, 600 million people fall sick as a result of around 200 different types of foodborne illness. The burden of such illness falls most heavily on the backward class and on the young.

The importance of food hygiene can be emphasised by the fact that it helps control the spread of food hazards within the food supply chain or commercial or residential kitchens. If left unmonitored, poor food hygienic practices can contribute to the spread of food contamination-causing agents. Consuming such foods can lead to foodborne infections and diseases like food poisoning or other gastrointestinal ailments.

You can prevent these food hazards and potential outbreaks by deploying best food hygiene practices in your food manufacturing unit or kitchens. Talking about food hygiene, it is the practice of preparing or manufacturing food properly by following optimal food washing, cooking, preserving, storage, and distribution practices to avoid food contamination.

U.S. Department of Agriculture discusses four major steps to be taken to prevent unwanted illness. These four easy steps are discussed below:

1. Clean

• Wash hands with warm, soapy water for 20 seconds before and after eating food.
• Consider using paper towels to clean kitchen surfaces.
• Wash anything you directly consume thoroughly with water. Especially raw fruits from markets should be properly washed.
• Keep your cutting boards clean. You can use liquid chlorine bleach for better results.
• Don’t use the same platter and utensils that held the raw product to serve the cooked product.
• Keep pets, household cleaners, and other chemicals away from food and surfaces used for food.

2. Separate

• Use separate cutting boards and plates for produce, meat, poultry, seafood, and eggs.
• Keep certain food items away from each other. For example, keep any sour food items away from dairy products.
• Make sure to keep foods separately inside the refrigerator as well. Don’t mx up the veggies!

3. Temperature

• Keep food hot (140°F (60°C) or above) after cooking
• Read package directions for cooking and follow them exactly to make sure food is thoroughly cooked.
• Refer to our Minimum Cooking Temperatures Chart to be sure your foods have reached a safe temperature.

4. Chill

• Your refrigerator should be set to 40°F (4°C) or below and your freezer to 0°F (-18°C) or below because bacteria multiply quickest between 40°F (4°C) and 140°F (60°C).
• Leftovers should be placed in shallow containers and refrigerated promptly to allow quick cooling.
• Never leave perishable foods out of refrigeration for more than 2 hours.

Additional Tips

• Use clean water to prepare food
• Use salt or vinegar water to wash raw vegetables and fruits
• Keep track of expiration dates
• Check the surrounding of your dining area
• Buy all meats and seafood from reputable suppliers.
• When reheating meals, cover them and reheat them thoroughly.

Adapt these changes to keep your family safe from foodborne diseases. Small negligence can lead to fatal diseases in no time. As the UN emphasises “food safety is everyone’s business”, practice healthy cooking and consuming habits. In a world where everything contains artificial coloring agents, taste enhancers, and preservatives; safe and natural food is somewhat rare. These chemicals affect our liver which undergoes irreversible damage with current eating scenario. It becomes our responsibility to keep food safety in mind, as our health is our own responsibility.