World Food Day held on October 16 is an opportunity to support worldwide awareness and action for people who suffer from hunger and a day to underscore the need to ensure healthy diets for all. Launched by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (UNFAO), the 2021 World Food Day theme, “Our Actions are our Future,” helps support the UN Sustainable Goals.
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) takes a look at several ways that the standardization community support World Food Day—and a more sustainable future.
“By 2050, there will be 10 billion people living on our planet,” notes the UNFAO. “To feed everyone, we need to transform the way we grow and consume food. We can all play a role in safeguarding our future food.”
Food Safety and Carving out a Better Environmental Impact
The ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB) has a number of accreditation programs related to food safety. These programs are based on international standards and industry-developed requirements and schemes that have a common goal of providing confidence in the quality and safety of food throughout the supply chain.
As an example, ANAB, a wholly owned subsidiary of ANSI, helps support food safety by protecting consumers against foodborne pathogens. Common but dangerous foodborne pathogens—such as Salmonella, E. coli, and listeria—often come from eating raw or undercooked meat and produce and unpasteurized dairy. To protect consumers against foodborne illness, ANAB is recognized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an accreditation body under the Food Safety Modernization Act, for which ISO/IEC 17021-1, Conformity assessment — Requirements for bodies providing audit and certification of management systems — Part 1: Requirements, and/or ISO/IEC 17065 are base requirements. In connection with the FDA – FSMA – Foreign Supplier Verification Programs, ANAB has an accreditation program accreditation to FDA - FSMA (Final Rule) – Foreign Supplier Verification Programs.
Furthermore, by accrediting product certification bodies for a variety of food safety certification programs based on the international standard ISO/IEC 17065, ANAB also supports the food and training industry and the UN Sustainable Goal 2 focused on "zero hunger."
Also, did you know that accreditation for food safety spans the U.S., with laws in California, Illinois, Arizona, West Virginia, Texas, New Mexico, and Hawaii? Even some local jurisdictions require food handlers within their limits to have a food-handling training certificate from an ANAB-accredited certificate program, demonstrating compliance with ASTM E2659, Standard Practice for Certificate Programs, an American National Standard.
Nearly two decades ago, ANAB and the Conference for Food Protection (CFP) entered into a cooperative agreement to accredit organizations involved in the certification of food protection managers. With this cooperative agreement, the ANAB-CFP Accreditation Program emerged as the only program of its kind in the U.S. The ANAB-CFP accreditation indicates that the certification organization has been evaluated by a third party and meets all of the CFP-established standards. To earn ANAB-CFP accreditation, the certification organization must meet the CFP Standards for Accreditation of Food Protection Manager Certification Programs and provide evidence of compliance through the documentation requested in the application.
Read more at the ANSI Blog: ANAB Credentialing Programs: Enhancing Food Safety Across the United States https://blog.ansi.org/?p=167540
Measures to Reduce the Environmental Impact of Food
The Safe Quality Food (SQF) Program is a rigorous and credible food safety and quality program that is recognized by retailers, brand owners, and food service provides world-wide. Recognized by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), the SQF family of food safety and quality codes are designed to meet industry, customer, and regulatory requirements for all sectors of the food supply chain – from the farm all the way to retail stores.
ANAB offers accreditation for two Safe Quality Food Institute (SQFI) Ethical Sourcing (ES) Certification Standards. Ethical Sourcing (ES) Edition 2.1 is a social, environmental, and occupational health and safety management system for the food industry. Fundamental Factors for Social Responsibility (F2SR) covers social and occupational health and safety management system requirements for manufacturing and service organizations of all types.
Below is a list of food safety Schemes owners that ANAB provides accreditation using their certification schemes using ISO/IEC 17065:
These are just a few ways that ANAB supports food safety. Read more about ANSI Accreditation for Food Safety, and watch a brief video to learn how ANSI/ANAB accreditation provides food safety assurance.
Standards that Support Sustainable Food
As the U.S. member body to ISO, ANSI also highlights the international standards and guidance that support a sustainable agri-food system. The newly published ISO/TS 26030, Social responsibility and sustainable development – Guidance on using ISO 26000:2010 in the food chain, for example, provides guidelines on how an organization in the food production chain can contribute to sustainable development. It serves to help organizations such as food companies, farms, cooperatives, processors, and retailers develop a list of activities that will lead them to being more socially responsible.
ISO reports that this technical specification is “just one of more than 1,600 ISO standards and guidance documents for the food production sector that directly help to end world hunger by creating confidence in food products, improving agricultural methods and promoting sustainable and ethical purchasing.”
Access various additional standards that support food safety, from UL 1026, Standard for Safety for Electric Household Cooking and Food Serving Appliances, to ASSE 1008-2020, Performance Requirements for Plumbing Aspects of Residential Food Waste Disposer Units, and many more by ANSI members and standards developers.
See how you can get involved with World Food Day or join the conversation via the social media. hashtag #WorldFoodDay.
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