“What is in your Food? A consumer's Everyday Dilemma”.

Each day we all make decisions related to the safety of the food that we eat. From simple tasks like washing your hands before a meal to less obvious decisions like where you put your shopping in the fridge. Food safety must be ensured systemically and be supported by governmental authorities, but some issues will always be in the hands of consumers.

World Health Day 2015 in Poland focussed on the consumer. The main goal of planned events was education but also strengthening confidence in official food control authorities. These objectives were implemented in two stages.

 National Conference

The conference took place at the National Institute of Public Health - National Institute of Hygiene (Warsaw) on 31st March. It was attended by institutions, associations and by a large group of national experts from all over the country, interested in the issue of food safety. Discussions included:

• epidemiology of food poisonings in Poland,
• risks associated with the presence of Listeria monocytogenes in food,
• safety of food additives on example of Southampton six.

Healthy diet and nutrition

The second stage of the World Health Day celebration in Poland was a press conference organised on 7th April in the Ministry of Health (Warsaw), during which experts shared their knowledge about food safety and principles of healthy diet and nutrition.

Prof. Miroslaw Jarosz (Director of the National Food and Nutrition Institute) said “everybody should choose products that meet their needs related to age, lifestyle or health condition.” He also noted that reading food labels is essential when shopping.

Joanna Gajda-Wyrębek (expert of the National Institute of Public Health - National Institute of Hygiene) dispelled many myths on food additives and warned that “a poorly balanced diet is the bigger danger.”  

Master Chef

Grzegorz Lapanowski (celebrity chef and host of Polish edition of the Top Chef, founder of the School on the fork foundation) demonstrated some of the basic rules of preparing everyday meals including separating raw and cooked food and storing products in at the right temperature during refrigeration.

World Health Day in the news

Information about the World Health Day was communicated to Polish consumers via press, radio and television. During both conferences different kinds of WHO informational materials were distributed. The WHO Five key to safe food video was translated into Polish and posted on governmental websites and boradcast on TV. The agricultural TV program the Week was dedicated to the World Health Day during which Stanislaw Kowalczyk (the Chief Inspector of Agriculture and Food Quality) and Jan Bondar (press spokesman of the State Sanitary Inspection) were special guests for a discussion on food safety and quality.

The World Health Day celebration in Poland was the result of a collaboration between many institutions dealing with matters of public health and food safety and quality: Ministry of Health, National Institute of Public Health - National Institute of Hygiene, State Sanitary Inspection, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Veterinary Inspection and Agricultural and Food Quality Inspection (AFQI) where the Codex Contact Point for Poland is located.

Codex Poland was involved from the very beginning in organisational issues related to the events of the World Health Day in Poland and participated in the selection of promotional materials and their translation into Polish. See the website for more news www.ijhars.gov.pl.