Sharing the responsibility for food safety in Indonesia

The Balai Besar POM (BBPOM) central office in Jayapura cannot work alone to guarantee food security in the province of Papua, it must work in synergy with other regional and cross-sector government offices. This suggestion was conveyed by one of the callers who joined the Interactive Dialogue "World Food Safety Day, Food Safety Joint Responsibility" at the RRI Jayapura on Tuesday 16 June 2020, which was carried out by teleconference. In an interactive dialogue guided by RRI Jayapura moderator Ida Susilowati, questions were raised about food safety and World Food Safety Day, celebrated on 7 June 2020, the role of BBPOM and the role of the community itself, together with the resource person at the Head of the POM Center in Jayapura Dr H. G. Kakerissa.

The theme for the World Food Safety Day commemoration was “Safe Food in Markets”, which was chosen because the market (modern, traditional, informal) is a place of activity of various walks of life in contact with food and others, also a place that is at risk in the spread of foodborne diseases and other diseases such as COVID-19.

The Head of BBPOM in Jayapura emphasized that food safety is a shared responsibility, both the government, businesses as producers, and the community as consumers. Everyone has a role to play from the farm to the table to ensure the food we consume is safe and will not damage our health.

The message for the public is that with the commemoration of World Food Safety Day it is hoped that the community can get used to food safety and pay more attention to the safety of the food they consume so as to reduce the risk of illness caused by food.