This FAO evidence platform provides evidence and tools to support governments and stakeholders in the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines on Food Systems and Nutrition (VGFSyN) of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS).
To find relevant documents for a VGFSyN recommendation, select a focus area from the left menu and the sub-focus area of your interest. You will be redirected to a page listing all relevant VGFSyN recommendations. Select a recommendation to access the links to the relevant online documents
Focus Area IV
Food safety across sustainable food systems
This focus area highlights the need for international and national cooperation on food safety, recognizing the importance of effective risks assessments, risk communication and risk management leading to control systems that are appropriate for different scales, contexts and modes of production and marketing. It provides guidance on: strengthening national and international cooperation on food safety; ensuring food safety across food production systems; and protecting consumers from food safety risks in food supplies.
3.4.1 Strengthening national and international cooperation on food safety
The four digit numbering of each recommendation follows the numbering in the VGFSyN, whereby the first digit represents the chapter 3 of the document that includes the 105 recommendations, the second digit the focus area, the third digit the sub-focus
area and the letter the specific recommendation.
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Recommendation 3.4.1.a
Governments should promote food safety within their food systems policies and develop science-based and context-specific food safety policies and programmes that consider actions across the entire food systems - concerning production, processing, handling, preparation, storage, and distribution of food.
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Recommendation 3.4.1.b
Governments should develop, establish, strengthen and enforce, as appropriate, food safety control systems, including reviewing, adopting, updating and enforcing national food safety legislation and regulations to ensure that food producers and suppliers throughout the food supply chain operate safely. Governments should implement, as appropriate, and with the support of intergovernmental organizations, internationally adopted standards, in accordance with paragraph 41 of the [Voluntary Guidelines on Food Systems and Nutrition] VGFSyN.
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Recommendation 3.4.1.c
Governments and the [Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations] FAO/[World Health Organization] WHO International Food Safety Authorities Network (INFOSAN) should participate in, share and contribute, where appropriate, data and evidence to official international networks that exchange food safety information, including the surveillance of foodborne hazards and disease outbreaks and management of emergencies to improve food safety across a range of issues such as water quality, pesticide residues, food-borne pathogens, naturally occurring toxins, contaminants including heavy metals, pesticides residues, residues of veterinary drugs, residues of antimicrobials, food additives, pathogenic bacteria, viruses, toxins, parasites, zoonoses, and fraud/adulteration of food products.