The Government of Jamaica is moving to implement a national communication plan to address the issue of food safety locally.

The National Codex committee, comprising the ministries of health and wellness, agriculture and fisheries, and industry, investment and commerce, has received support from the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), in the development of the communication plan, which will focus on raising public education and awareness.

Speaking at a recent JIS Think Tank, director of Veterinary Public Health in the Ministry of Health and Wellness, Dr Linnette Peters, said that the objective is to increase and improve the awareness of all stakeholders on the important role that they play in ensuring that food consumed locally is safe.

“Food safety is a shared responsibility involving Government, producers and consumers. Everyone has a role to play from the farm to the table to ensure that the food we eat is safe and healthy, thereby reducing the burden of food-borne illnesses. The challenge is clear — focusing on food-safety programmes that protect the consumer is not an option; it is the key to survival,” she said.

Dr Peters noted that the communication plan will include aspects focused on reaching children. “[It] has several components, which include an infusion of food-safety information into the curriculum of secondary and primary schools,” she noted.

Dr Peters told JIS News that the stakeholders are now in the process of implementing the communication plan.

“There is an inter-ministerial team that is looking at the communication tactics to also provide a level of continued awareness of the public’s role in ensuring the safety of what they consume, as well as the general food-safety information,” she noted.

“We are now looking at the sustained activities that can be embarked on… as we now prepare our budget to ensure that we can start the implementation this financial year,” she added.