Addressing the Consumer Goods Council of SA's (CGCSA) Annual Conference in Johannesburg, Frank Yiannas on Friday, 7 October 2011, said that food safety was a global issue and that the world could benefit from harmonised or standard solutions such as the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), a non-profit foundation that benchmarks existing food standards against food safety criteria, and also looks to develop mechanisms to exchange information in the supply chain, to raise consumer awareness and to review existing good retail practices.
"At the leadership of the CGCSA, food retailers and food service organisations in SA will soon embark on the GFSI journey," he said.
The GFSI was launched following a number of food safety scares, when international retailer CEOs including those from Tesco, Carrefour, Metro, Ahold and Wal-Mart identified the need to enhance food safety and ensure consumer protection.
According to Yiannas, because food supply was becoming global there was a capability to have large outbreaks and food scares that could go global "very easily".
In 2008 the World Health Organisation (WHO) said the Chinese milk scandal was one of the largest food safety events it had had to deal with. Melamine-tainted milk led to the death of six babies and illness in over 300 000 victims.
Similarly, in 2009 the US was hit with a national salmonella outbreak contained in peanut butter. Salmonella is a bacteria that causes diarrhoea, cramping and fever. It is the most common source of food poisoning in the US. The peanut butter scare led to nine deaths and an estimated 25 000 people were affected.
According to the WHO estimates, 1.8 million deaths annually are as a result of contaminated food and water.
But Yiannas said that food safety awareness was at an all-time high.
"The food system is in a race. The race is between the industry's ability to prevent food-borne illness and public health's ability to detect it," he said.
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