Right nutrition and food safety are vital issues for the health and wellbeing of all community members. Since Hospital 57357 is committed to offering healthy nutrition to its children, and to providing healthy nutrition awareness to the community, it celebrated the WHO food safety day with a two-day event on July 21 and 22, under the slogan “Safer food, better health”. The first day included speakers from the National Nutrition Institute, the world nutrition program, the WHO representative in Egypt, Unicef Egypt, and the National Food Safety Authority, while the second day included two workshops: the first one discussed risk analysis, critical points of control, performance gaps, and the application of IZO 2200, while the second workshop discussed the application of food safety in our daily lives.
In his speech, the executive director of 57357 group and the Hospital general manager assured the Hospital’s duty of applying food safety measures to protect its vulnerable children’s health as well as spreading awareness about food safety in the community as 20% to 30% of cancer cases are related to food pollution.
On the sidelines of the event, we chatted with Dr. Golsen Saleh, head of clinical nutrition, and Dr. Ola Mohamed, head of communication and awareness of Hospital 57357.
“Through today’s event we aim to raise awareness about food safety in the Egyptian community, said Dr. Golsen. Food safety applications and challenges will be discussed as well as its role in cancer prevention and food safety guidelines in hospitals will be addressed. Food is not just a source of energy, it is considered the basis of the internal structure of the human being, and Hospital 57357 is an example of applying food safety as it deals with immuno-compromised children, hence taking care of food safety is on top of the medical team priorities, she added.
Meanwhile, Dr. Mohamed stressed on the Hospital’s interest in food safety as children with cancer have low immunity, and food is one of their treatment fundamentals. Since the Hospital is a pioneer in healthcare and nutrition we are engaging in spreading food safety awareness to prevent one of the causes of cancer, added Dr. Mohamed.
The first day of the event featured the honoring of Dr. Gihan Fouad, director of the Nutrition Institute, Dr. Ayoub Algawalda, head of the nutrition program of WHO’s regional office, Dr. Naglaa Arafa, assistant director of Unicef’s nutrition program, Dr, Aliaa Hafez, director of the international nutrition program and Eng. Mahmoud Basyouni, executive director of Food Industries Chamber, for their leading rolls in the field of food safety.