CSIR hosts workshop for safer food

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The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), in conjunction with the United Kingdom’s Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquatic Science (CEFAS), hosted a OneFood workshop from 31 October to 2 November 2022. The event was held at Kwalata Game Lodge, Dinokeng Game Reserve in Hammanskraal, north of Pretoria.

The OneFood workshop placed hazard profiling and management at the heart of environmentally-, economically- and socially-sustainable food system design, through articulating the importance of identifying and controlling hazards in food systems, to operationalise One Health by creating safer food and a better environment.

One Health is a global, integrated, unifying approach to balance and optimises the health of people, animals, and the environment. It is particularly important to prevent, predict, detect, and respond to global health threats such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The approach mobilises multiple sectors, disciplines, and communities at varying levels of society to work together. In this way, new and better ideas are developed that address root causes and create long-term, sustainable solutions.

One Health involves the public health, veterinary and environmental sectors. The approach is particularly relevant for food and water safety, nutrition, the control of zoonoses (diseases that can spread between animals and humans, such as flu, rabies, and Rift Valley fever), pollution management, and combatting antimicrobial resistance (the emergence of microbes that are resistant to antibiotic therapy).

CEFAS, an executive agency of the UK government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (UK DEFRA), has received Overseas Development Assistance (ODS) from UK DEFRA to co-design and deliver the OneFood project with the South African government. As part of the initiative, the CEFAS and CSIR are looking to collaborate to define the OneFood research concept and develop the project roadmap.

The project is funded by the UK DEFRA within the Global Centre of Biodiversity for Climate. It seeks to address the issue of biologicals such as pests, diseases, and chemical hazards such as pollution, that pose a threat to the efficiency of food systems. The hazards increase their impact on natural resources per unit of food that is produced, which threatens food safety.

The CSIR aims to position itself to play a key role in touching people’s lives in collaboration with strategic partners to catalyse a new system thinking across affected sectors for the benefit of the food system, as well as the agricultural sector. The CSIR will contribute towards driving socioeconomic transformation through research, development and innovation that supports the development of a capable state and builds and transforms human capital and infrastructure.

The workshop was attended by Dr Rachel Chikwamba, divisional group executive at the CSIR Chemistry and Life Sciences division; Aidan Darker, director of the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO); Maneshree Jugmohan-Naidu, director of Agriculture Biotechnology from the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI); Lesiba Jacoray, country coordinator from the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations; and Dr Mphane Molefe, director of veterinary public health at the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development.

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