To ensure food availability, accessibility, affordability and safety, the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has underscored the need to accelerate transformation of global agrifood systems to be more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable.
The FAO Director General, Qu Dongyu, who stated this in a video to mark the World Food Safety Day 2025, emphasised the need for all to reflect on the fundamental role science plays in protecting food.
The World Food Safety Day established by the United Nations General Assembly during its 73rd session and adopted on December 20, 2018, is celebrated yearly, on every June 7. This year’s theme is ‘Food Safety: Science in Action.’
A Senior Food Safety Officer at FAO, Markus Lipp, who noted that science is not simply a technical tool but a framework for understanding and managing risk in a pluralistic world, underscored the foundational role of science in global food safety, calling it “a shared language” essential for building trust between consumers, industries, regulators and nations.
“At FAO, we believe food safety is not just about preventing harm, it is about creating confidence and trust in the food we eat, in the systems that protect us, that protect food safety and in the institutions that serve the public good for safe food.”
Lipp stressed that science must not be imposed in a top-down fashion but embraced as a collective foundation for action and dialogue. “Science is more than practice—it is a belief in shared knowledge and shared reality. When used well, it protects health, facilitates trade, and strengthens trust,” he said.
In Nigeria, the Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) called on governments at all levels to implement policies that promote healthy, indigenous diets and discourage the widespread availability and consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPFs), linked to the rising non-communicable diseases (NCDs) burden in the country.
The body warned that UPFs – often excessively high in sugar, salt, and unhealthy fats, and low in essential nutrients – and other junk foods including sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), are gradually replacing nutritious traditional diets at a great cost to food safety, security and public health.
In a statement to commemorate the day, CAPPA’s Executive Director, Akinbode Oluwafemi, canvassed the adoption of policies such as Front-of-Pack Warning Labelling (FOPWL), regulations for enforcing sodium targets in processed and packaged foods, an effective SSB tax, and the development of a Nutrient Profile Model (NPM), among others, to combat the rising burden of diet-related NCDs.
“Ultra-processed foods are a threat to Nigeria’s food safety, security and sovereignty. Policies that restrict their consumption, especially their availability on children’s diets, are a proactive approach to promoting better health and well-being.”
He lamented that UPFs, including noodles and sugary drinks, had not only become the most widely available products to millions of Nigeria’s internally displaced persons (IDPs) or others facing humanitarian crises, but also the food of choice in many homes and schools nationwide.
“This gradual normalising of junk food comes at a great price: before our eyes, some of our nutritious indigenous foods that kept us healthy and shielded us from what used to be considered ‘foreign diseases’ like cancer, are dropping off our menus because many of the food crops used to prepare them are at risk of extinction or decline due to factors including our preference for exotic junk foods and drinks,” said Oluwafemi.
Worse yet, CAPPA’s recent report from an investigation in seven states, titled Junk on Our Plates, found that food and beverage companies are aggressively marketing unhealthy foods mostly to children and young adults, often falsely labelling them as ‘nutritious’ or ‘natural’.
Oluwafemi warned that this dangerous, greed-fuelled practice, coupled with poor regulations, the lack of FOPWL, and an ineffective SSB tax, take away Nigerians’ right and ability to make informed food choices, thereby worsening their susceptibility to preventable diseases like diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular conditions.
“The World Food Safety Day 2025 with its theme ‘Food Safety: Science in Action’, reminds us that food not only plays a vital role in reducing disease and saving lives but is also a question of equity and social justice.”
On its part, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said the burden of food borne diseases is significant, yet largely preventable. “Food borne diseases affect individuals across all age groups, but particularly children under five and the vulnerable. The Eastern Mediterranean Region is at a critical point in efforts to ensure that all individuals have access to safe and nutritious food supplies.
“The situation is made even more urgent by fast-evolving climate change and environmental pollution, the surge in urbanisation, population growth and shifts in lifestyle and consumption patterns. These factors are increasing human exposure to harmful chemical compounds, antimicrobial residues and drug-resistant foodborne pathogens.”
The world health body said the health implications and associated economic costs of food borne diseases are substantial, which include expenses related to medical treatment, child development, lost productivity, export restrictions and market loss.
