World Food Safety Day: Go for fresh and living organic food to avoid food born diseases

Coordinated jointly by the WHO and FAO World Food Safety Day is observed on 7 June to draw attention and inspire action to help prevent, detect and manage foodborne risks, contributing to food security, human health, economic prosperity, agriculture, market access, tourism and sustainable development. The observance is viewed as an opportunity to strengthen efforts to ensure that the food we eat is safe, mainstream food safety in the public agenda and reduce the burden of foodborne diseases globally.

"Access to sufficient amounts of safe food is key to sustaining life and promoting good health. Foodborne illnesses are usually infectious or toxic in nature and often invisible to the plain eye, caused by bacteria, viruses, parasites or chemical substances entering the body through contaminated food or water. Food safety has a critical role in assuring that food stays safe at every stage of the food chain - from production to harvest, processing, storage, distribution, all the way to preparation and consumption," informs the UN.

According to the WHO, with an estimated 600 million cases of foodborne illnesses annually, unsafe food is a threat to human health and economies, disproportionally affecting vulnerable and marginalized people, especially women and children, populations affected by conflict, and migrants. An estimated 420 000 people around the world die every year after eating contaminated food and children under 5 years of age carry 40% of the foodborne disease burden, with 125 000 deaths every year.

Nutritionists believe that all food that is grown with chemically fertilizers, protected from pesticides and preserved with chemical mix and packaged in high density plastics is dead food. The fertilized and chemically preserved food is called the "dead food" these days. The highly processed, preserved, half-cooked, overcooked items should in polybags lack nutritional vitality, vital enzymes, and "life force". In nutrition, it stands in direct opposition to "living foods" like fresh, whole produce which is organic, self-cooked and wholesome.

Avoid dead food, stay safe: A poem

Food that's dead, you see,

Is packed, and cooked too free.

In tins and boxes tight,

It loses all its light.

No goodness left inside,

Where vitamins used to hide.

No fiber, rich and grand,

No minerals in the land.

It's life force drained away,

For us to eat each day.

The plastic wraps they keep,

Hold chemicals that creep

From boxes, meals so neat,

And fruit snacks, oh so sweet.

Dry fruits, so hard and dry,

And cereals that lie.

All polished, white and bland,

Not good for any land.

Old meals from freezer deep,

That we reheat and keep.

Though taste might still be strong,

They make our bodies wrong.

They bring us sickness near,

And fill our hearts with fear.