Webinar: Food safety implications from the use of environmental inhibitors in agrifood systems

An online event will take place on Thursday, 9 May 2024 from 14:30 to 15:30 CEST via Zoom. Based on the recent FAO publication, the webinar aims to stimulate discussion on the food safety aspects that need to be considered and addressed when using environmental inhibitors in agrifood systems.

The challenge of feeding an increasing global population while responding to the climate crisis requires developing practices and technologies that enhance the sustainability of food production.

“Among the approaches that are being developed to increase the sustainability of agrifood systems, environmental inhibitors help reduce negative impacts on the environment while improving the production efficiency of crops and livestock,” said FAO Food Safety Specialist Magdalena Niegowska.

However, an inadvertent presence of residues from environmental inhibitors in food commodities can raise health concerns as well as trade disruption if standards or appropriate measures are not established. The possible food safety issues associated with these substances can be challenging to assess and manage due to the lack of internationally harmonized regulatory approaches, agreed definition for environmental inhibitors and insufficient food safety information for some compounds.  

The findings of the FAO report will be presented during the webinar, followed by a panel discussion with food safety experts Warren Hughes, Ministry for Primary Industries, New Zealand; Claudio Nuñez, Ministry of Agriculture, Chile; Michael Dickinson, Food Standards Agency, United Kingdom; and Holly Erdely, Food and Drug Administration, United States of America.  

“We hope that the findings and the food safety analysis offered in our report will be useful to realize the full potential of environmental inhibitors towards resilient, sustainable and safe agrifood systems,” said Vittorio Fattori, FAO Food Safety Officer.

Learn more

Register here. 

Download the agenda

Download the report Food safety implications from the use of environmental inhibitors in agrifood systems

Read news about the release of the report on the FAO website and the Codex website

Photo: ©FAO/Riccardo De Luca