The International Association of Ecology and Health (IAEH) is pleased to offer a free webinar, "Animal Source Food: Hazards don’t always translate into risks."
DESCRIPTION Animal source foods (ASF) are food items from animal sources (e.g. meat, milk, eggs, cheese and yogurt). Informal markets are the major supplier of ASF in Africa, where they generate income, provide high nutritional value and are well suited to the small farm production system. However informal markets are non-transparent and vulnerable to practices which can compromise food safety because enforcing effective health and hygiene regulations is challenging. Producers in informal markets face rising standards for safety and quality; however, risk-based approaches to assess the likelihood of harm to human health are difficult to apply under such conditions. Since 2000, case studies on risk analysis of ASF (milk, meat and fish) in West Africa reveal that analysis should consider relations between stakeholders and include consideration of technology, gender, poverty, participation, market incentives and culture. This necessitates adopting the new approach of participatory risk analysis fitting within the ecohealth and one health thinking to address complex health problems. It appears that ASF sold in the informal sector often contains hazards, but this does not necessarily mean that the food products are harmful to human health. Culture, especially as it relates to traditional food preparation, is a key factor in food safety. Gender can be surprisingly effective in risk management. Food safety problems are often better solved through stakeholder engagement, using market incentives rather than public health regulation and enforcement alone. DATE: Wednesday, June 29, 2016 TIME: 10:00 am Eastern Daylight Time (Toronto/New York, GMT-04:00) 4:00 pm Europe Summer Time (Paris, GMT+02:00) 12 AM (Thursday, June 30) Australia Eastern Time (Brisbane, GMT+10:00) REGISTER HERE: https://iisd.webex.com/iisd/onstage/g.php? MTID=e2df6e5f194467f1ef50df284656fd2f1
