FAO and WHO have been convening expert meetings and consultations to assess food safety risks for decades – two, to be exact, when it comes to microbiological hazards, such as bacteria, viruses and parasites. Technical experts from different disciplines and different parts of the world gather for the periodic meetings on microbiological risk assessment that are known by the acronym, JEMRA. The meetings are held in response to requests for scientific advice from the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the international food standard-setting body jointly coordinated by FAO and WHO, as well in response to other identified emerging needs. “Last year, when JEMRA...

Consumers may see making sure that food is safe to eat as something that food businesses or governments do, but food safety is really everyone’s business. Regulations only go so far and critical actions remain in the hands of food handlers – including the people who produce, process, store, transport, sell, prepare and consume food. Therefore, it is important for governments to support food producers, industries and consumers to delegate the responsibilities of food safety. Developing a food safety culture is one of the most effective approaches to getting everyone in the food supply chain to fully appreciate applying good food...

FAO led a 3-week training course – with 25 participants gathered in Vientiane, Lao PDR and others on Zoom – in July 2021 to explain how to use dietary data. The attendees, included representatives from the Ministry of Health - the Lao Tropical and Public Health Institute (Lao-TPHI), Nutrition Center, Department of Hygiene and Health Promotion, and the University of Health Sciences, all of whom will be able to use the techniques to support evidence-based policymaking.  The overall purpose of the training was to make the best use of data that had been gathered in a nation-wide food consumption survey conducted in...

FAO has issued a new guidance document to highlight additional measures that food businesses and the authorities regulating the sector can take to protect workers from person-to-person spread of COVID-19. The updated guidelines are to help ensure that the integrity of the food chain is maintained and adequate and safe food supplies are available for consumers. While COVID-19 may pose an occupational safety risk for workers in any type of business or industry where individuals work in close proximity to one another, SARS-CoV-2 itself is not considered a direct food safety hazard. Updated with new evidence, this FAO guidance replaces the...

Today FAO and the Republic of Korea signed a Framework Arrangement to collaborate on food safety, starting with a USD 10 million project that will support the implementation and monitoring of Codex standards aimed at strengthening agri-food systems by reducing foodborne antimicrobial resistance (AMR). A Member of the Codex Alimentarius Commission since 1971, the Republic of Korea has been monitoring foodborne AMR at national level since 2003 and has long held a leading role within Codex on AMR-related work. The Republic of Korea has served as Chair of the Codex ad hoc Intergovernmental Task Force on Antimicrobial Resistance (TFAMR) from...

Ahead of the Food Systems Summit, FAO is holding a series of knowledge sessions to facilitate navigating the information resources the Organization makes available. FAO publications are open access, often produced in different languages and formats. The sessions will cover how to find materials, how you can re-use them, sign up for the latest releases and more. The first of the five sessions will focus on food security, food safety and nutrition – in line with Action Track 1 of the Food Systems Summit, which is about ‘Ensuring access to safe and nutritious food for all’. Each session will...

On 7 and 8 July 2021, the National Institute of Public Health of the Republic of Mali launched a new food safety project that will promote the use of Codex Alimentarius standards and codes of practice in the smoked fish sector, in particular, and its potential spillover effects to other value chains, such as grilled/smoked meat and oilseeds will be documented. The three-year project (Promotion of Codex standards and codes of practice in the smoked fish sector and consequences on food safety in other sectors in Mali) will be implemented by FAO starting in 2021. The project - funded by the...

Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) has been effectively used in the field of food safety, and yet it is still a challenge for low- and middle- income countries (LMICs) to fully benefit from it. Among the key issues, it is essential that policy-makers are aware of the usefulness of this technology. In June 2021, FAO contributed a technical article entitled “A Silver Lining of the Pandemic: Whole-Genome Sequencing and Food Safety – The benefits of whole-genome sequencing are far ranging” to a Food Safety Magazine. The article highlights the usefulness of WGS in outbreak investigations and discusses in-depth the importance...

While COVID-19 is not transmitted via food, the virus that causes the disease can be transmitted from person to person and affect producers, processors and distributors while at work, unless suitable precautionary measures are taken. An FAO-led webinar today focused on what measures to use to protect the health of those working along the food supply chain. ‘Getting MAD’ is the solution proposed by FAO Food Safety Officer Jeffrey LeJeune, who explained in an opening presentation that the acronym stands for: Masks, Air and Distance. “Face masks effectively lower the probabilty of COVID transmission in...

Food production, marketing and distribution are essential services. However, with the worrying number of incidents emerging where markets and processing facilities became “hubs of COVID-19 infection”, there is growing concern about the potential impacts of COVID-19 and related containment efforts on food security and livelihoods, especially in contexts of high vulnerability and where populations are already experiencing food crises. Under a project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) to support COVID-19 awareness-raising and sensitization campaigns among food chain workers, three FAO publications, including a policy brief on food safety (scroll down...