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World Food Safety Day is To Remind & Ensure Food Safety For All

Writer's picture: Manushya FoundationManushya Foundation
Jun 6, 2023


Access to adequate and suitable food is a basic human right that should be guaranteed for everyone. Sadly, this fundamental right is not fulfilled for a significant portion of the global population. In this article, Manushya Foundation delves into the importance of ensuring the right to food, emphasizing the need for regular, permanent, and unrestricted access to nutritious food that meets the essential requirement of being suitable for human consumption.


The issues of unsafe food


Every day, a staggering number of individuals worldwide suffer from the devastating consequences of unsafe food. Here are the sample cases:

  • 1, 600, 000 people get sick due to unsafe food

  • 340 children under 5 years old die due to preventable food-borne diseases

  • 200 diseases are caused by unsafe food, ranging from diarrhea to cancers.

Solution to unsafe food


👉 What is the solution to those tragedies? That would be food standards - they are the criteria that food must meet to ensure what we eat is safe, and can save lives! Those criteria range from source, composition, appearance, freshness, and permissible additives, to maximum bacterial content.


❗️International human rights law obliges States to respect existing access to adequate food. This means national authorities are not only prohibited from taking any measures that result in preventing such access, but they also must ensure that enterprises or individuals do not deprive individuals of it!


Case studies of unsafe food standards in Thailand


Moving forward, Thailand has evident case studies on unsafe food standards. Notably, in #Phichit and #Phitsanulok provinces, situated in Central Thailand, over 6,000 villagers have seen their livelihoods and food security and food safety compromised after chemical residues from the gold mine contaminated their groundwater and farming soil. These issues have resulted in soil contamination that rendered their fields dangerous for growing crops, which caused the loss of livelihoods of Phichit farmers.


Since then, they have become dependent on imported food they can’t afford, and they are at risk of serious health problems from eating contaminated vegetables. Such a community becomes extremely vulnerable to food insecurity, risks hunger, and malnutrition. Despite their protests and fight for justice, the Thai authorities still have not compensated the villagers fairly and adequately.


#WeAreManushyan ♾ Equal Human Beings


✊ Manushya stands in solidarity with the Phichit villagers and urges the Thai government to bring them justice, in line with its international human rights obligations and commitments!


✊ We urge the Thai government to stop corporate greed and impunity, close the Chatree gold mine, and hold accountable Akara Resources, the company running the mine!


✊ The #ThaiGovernment must also be held into account for allowing Akara Resources to compromise the Phichit villager's food security and food safety for years!


➡️ See how Manushya is supporting the Phichit villagers in their quest for Justice! Access our #JusticeForPhichit campaign and read our blog on the negative impact of Free Trade Agreements on food security and access to water in relation to the Phichit villagers!


➡️ Check out our related work on #ClimateJustice and how we advocate for a Just Transition:

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