Oyo State commissioner for health, Dr. Oluwaserimi Ajetunmobi, has called for concerted efforts and more collaboration with relevant stakeholders to ensure food taken by the individual is safe.
Ajetunmobi, who stated this while declaring the 2024 Food Safety Symposium Open at the Ibadan Business School, emphasized that achieving food safety requires collective efforts and continuous enlightenment.
The symposium organized by the state ministry of health to commemorate 2024 World Food Safety Day was in collaboration with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and World Health Organization (WHO).
The commissioner noted that the event was to create awareness and enlighten stakeholders for them to contribute their quota so as to reduce the risk of foodborne illnesses.
She admonished all and sundry to be conscious of the quality of food to eat and the production process to promote healthy living.
“Oyo State Ministry of Health is committed to global best practices to achieve its primary goal of safe food to ensure citizens’ health.
“Through the department of Food, Water and Laboratory Services, the Ministry pursues its food safety objective of reducing food safety hazards in Food Business Operators’ (FBOs) products by the implementing different initiatives in line with the State Strategic Health Development Plan (2018 – 2022), the State Registration and Quality Control Regulations (2012), the Public Health Law (Cap 135) (2000), and other extant laws in Nigeria.
“Oyo State, under the leadership of HE Engr. Seyi Makinde, is primed to transform its food systems and make safe and healthy foods available to the people.
”In the same vein, the discussion topic of today’s symposium also echoes the sentiments of Oyo State House of Assembly and their commitment to making safer food available to the residents of the State.
“To this end, the ministry of health, as well as other line parastatals on food safety, is willing and ready to advance this laudable parliamentary action by working to create in Oyo State a well prepared and resilient food safety control system in particular and healthcare systems in general.
Harping on the theme of the symposium “Preparing for the unexpected: Addressing Food Safety Crises and Challenges Through Collaborative Efforts”, the keynote speaker, Mr. Femi Stephen of the federal ministry of health and social welfare, said it became essential to continually build the capacity of people involved in the food distribution chain to achieve food safety in the communities.
He explained that constant information sharing among relevant stakeholders and collaborative approaches are inevitable in tackling the menace of unsafe food, which he said could be attributed to different factors.
He stressed the need to put in place surveillance and response teams across states and empower them, saying this will enable them to enforce compliance to global food safety standards.
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