On 23-25 May 2016, FAO held a technical meeting at FAO Headquarters, Rome on the impact of whole genome sequencing (WGS) on food safety management, together with the 9th meeting of the Global Microbial Identifier. The meeting was attended by 175 participants from 50 countries and dealt with a range of topics including benefits and potential drawbacks of WGS, considerations for developing countries, key needs for global actions and potential roles of international organizations, existing initiatives on WGS of pathogens, global capacity for identification and characterization of pathogens, issues relevant to epidemiology and surveillance, issues around global data-sharing, and technical discussions on metagenomics. The 53-page meeting report is now available at http://www.fao.org/3/a-i6582e.pdf (950 KB). On a related subject, FAO organized a side event on 20 September 2016 dedicated to “Application of genome sequencing for sustainable agriculture and food security” during the 25th session of the FAO Committee on Agriculture. The 9-page report of the side event is available at http://www.fao.org/3/a-bq675e.pdf (1 MB). For more information, contact [email protected].