October 2022

Food Safety plays a vital role in our daily lives. People need food to survive, so it is a must that the food we prepare and serve is safe to avoid illnesses. Nowadays, most people often forget the importance of food safety. We seem to value the appearance of food rather than ensuring its safety. Although other social issues become prevalent in the world and the country, the number of cases of foodborne illnesses is still alarming. To highlight the importance of Food Safety, the World Health Organization (WHO) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations organized a day where people can celebrate the importance of food safety. Every 7th of June, every member of the United Nations celebrate World Food Safety Day. The theme for the first World Food Safety Day is “Food Safety is everyone’s business”. It highlights the importance of food handling in all stages—from purchasing, receiving, storing, preparing, cooking, and up to serving. The celebration calls for everybody. Government officials, producers, business operators, and even consumers should take responsibility to ensure that every food served is safe and fit for consumption. Food Safety and Hygiene Academy of the Philippines gladly participated in the celebration by doing their part in the awareness of food safety around the Philippines. The institution traversed on the different groups that cover the parts of the flow of food. The following are the events where FoodSHAP® celebrated World Food Safety Day 2019: June 7, 2019 –Grow it safe – Agriculture and food producers need to adopt good practices. The first step to having safe food is by proper production. Animals and harvests must first be taken care of properly. Good hygiene must be observed. It is through our food producers that we ensure that our food will be safe to eat. They must follow good agricultural practices to manufacture products that are free from danger to avoid food poisoning. FoodSHAP® conducted a farm visit and had an orientation on Good Agricultural Practices with the Central Visayas Food Safety Technical Working Group. Some of the activities prepared were the inspection of agricultural farms and a field trip to some facilities handling fresh produce. June 17, 2019 –Food Safety is a shared responsibility. Consumers have the right to purchase safe food. This entails a duty to prepare food safely. Majority of foodborne illnesses might come from food establishments but there is also a large number of people who suffered from foodborne illnesses from home-cooked food. As food safety is everyone’s responsibility, each one of us must learn how to prepare food safely. The knowledge to ensure the safety of food is essential in avoiding foodborne illnesses. FoodSHAP® presented FoodSHAP® Moms, a community-based workshop training for parents. It was conducted in the Sacred Heart Parish Shrine in Quezon City. Attendees experienced interactive learning on the Basic Foundations of Food Safety to help them prepare a hazard-free food at home. World Food Safety is only done once a year. Always remember to ensure food safety every day!

Food lovers unite! One of the most celebrated Food & Beverage events here in the country is the Manila Food and Beverage Expo (MAFBEX). With over 500 booths to visit and 9 event highlights to bask in, the expo surely is a paradise to the food industry and food enthusiasts as well. Every June, MAFBEX can be found at the World Trade Center Metro Manila Building, Pasay. Aside from the entertaining cooking and product demos, competitions, franchising opportunities, and food fairs, MAFBEX also offers an event highlight for those who want to learn more on the industry. MAFBEX Seminars are organized by the Worldbex International Organization and De La Salle – College of Saint Benilde’s Young Hotelier’s Exposition. The seminars are free of charge. It covers a wide array of topics that are relevant to the food industry. The Food Safety and Hygiene Academy of the Philippines proudly participates in the 2019 MAFBEX Seminar. FoodSHAP® Vice President for Training and Program Development Mr. Glenn Hyde Dela Cruz conducted a seminar and talked about Handling Food Safety Related Complaints in Food Service Establishments. The seminar guides food service establishments on how they would handle food safety related complaints by customers. Included in the topic is the statistics of foodborne disease outbreak in the Philippines as well as the places of food poisoning, common signs and symptoms, and risk factors. The speaker also talked about the challenges and issues on Food Safety Implementation in Food Service Establishments and the impact of social media in the fast spread of news on food poisoning incidents. The highlight of the topic is the proper handling of complaints of customers, the use of incubation period-based interview in identifying food poisoning cases, and the root-cause analysis and investigation for continual improvements of food service establishments.