World Food Safety Day is celebrated on 7 June 2020 to draw attention and inspire action to help prevent, detect and manage food-borne risks, contributing to food security, human health, economic prosperity, agriculture, market access, tourism and sustainable development.
This year, Kenya joins the rest of the world in celebrating the 2nd World Food Safety Day. Due to the current challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the celebration has been marked with live promotions on local television and radio networks, live discussions/awareness-raising forums on television, a series of webinars and newspaper supplements.
The Market Access Upgrade Programme (MARKUP) project in Kenya, implemented by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), has been part of the National Planning Committee set up for this day, which includes government officials, and representatives of development organizations and the private sector.
MARKUP activities have included participation in a live TV forum on KTN TV to discuss key food safety hazards, the role of partners in the food safety systems, and the impact of COVID-19 on food supply and food control systems in Kenya.
The UNIDO project has also participated in sharing food safety messages on the social media and digital platforms, targeting producers and consumers. UNIDO has partnered with social media influencers to provide cooking demonstrations while handling food safely in order to promote the theme, EAT IT SAFE, targeting consumers. The cooking demonstration videos ran from 5-7 June 2020. Additionally, food safety messages have been shared with digital groups, including Digital farmers and Lets cook Kenyan meals, targeting both producers and consumers in line with the theme, GROW IT SAFE.
UNIDO also carried out a Twitter Blast Campaign to drive conversation towards food safety issues using creative images, gifs, polls and threads on 7 June, in line with the theme, TEAM UP FOR SAFETY.
UNIDO’s Kenya MARKUP project aims to improve the competitiveness of small-scale farmers in 12 counties of Kenya through the enhancement of quality and safety standards in a variety of crop value chains, including mango, passion fruit, avocado, tea, coffee, horticulture, herbs and spices, tea and nuts. The project is funded by the European Union and is anchored within Kenya’s Ministry of Industry, Trade and Cooperatives.
