Workshops on ranking food safety risks in Mongolia, Viet Nam, Tanzania and Uganda
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) convened workshops on ranking food safety risks in Mongolia (17 and 18 June), the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam (20 and 21 June), the United Republic of Tanzania (24 and 25 June), and the Republic of Uganda (27 and 28 June). The workshops are the first part of a series of capacity building activities for risk analysis in these four countries under the One Health for Food Safety (1H4FS) project, which is supported by the Republic of Korea.
National and regional regulators from multiple food sectors and different ministries, researchers from academia, food business operators participated in the workshop. Representatives from other international organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) also attended the workshops.
"You can’t have safe food without One Health. You can’t have One Health without safe food." said Jeffrey LeJeune, FAO Food Safety Officer and Lead Technical Officer of the 1H4FS project.
There is great value in systematically and transparently evaluating surveillance and illness data to identify the most important food safety risk in a given population. The training in risk ranking allows for local experts to prioritize the food safety risks of greatest importance to the countries’ needs.
"There is a difference between a hazard (dangerous substance) and a risk (the likelihood of something to cause harm) “said Kang Zhou, FAO Food Safety Officer and workshop instructor. “The participants came away with a clear understanding of this difference, and for the critical need to focus on food safety risks—to address the issues that are the largest burden to food safety in each of their countries.”
The 1H4FS project team will continue to assist these countries in strengthening their national risk analysis capacity in the context of One Health, thereby improving both lives and the livelihoods through safer food.
Some other information about this project can be found here:
- https://www.fao.org/food-safety/news/news-details/en/c/1672552/
- https://www.fao.org/fao-who-codexalimentarius/news-and-events/news-details/en/c/1697390/
The FAO Guide to Ranking Food Safety Risks at the National Level can be found here:
Photo credits, clockwise from top left: ©Davgadorj Y., ©FAOVietNam, ©Paulo Mzungute, ©Kang Z.