The FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia and the WHO Regional Office for Europe (EURO) co-hosted a World Food Safety Day webinar on 28 June to address the linkages between One Health and food safety.

Welcome remarks were given by Raimund Jehle, Regional Programme Leader, FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia, who said: “Food safety authorities have long worked to manage food safety issues through a set of key principles including a risk-based approach, applying controls from farm to fork, and collaborating across sectors and stakeholder groups. One Health can help to consolidate these efforts further.”

Gerald Rockenschaub, Regional Emergencies Director for WHO EURO and Katinka de Balogh, Senior One Health Specialist at FAO then gave presentations. “Every year, in the WHO European region, an estimated 23 million people get ill and 5 000 people die from consuming unsafe food,” Rockenschaub said. “Considering the interconnectivity between food and the environment, the One Health approach is truly critical to addressing food safety; and food safety is critical to promote One Health.”

In her keynote speech, de Balogh offered a successful example of the One Health approach in Central Asia and Balkan regions, citing the prevention and control of brucellosis in the region.

Speakers then included Alberto Mantovani, Member of the Technical Advisory Group for One Health at WHO EURO, who highlighted the role of the environment both as the source of hazards, but also the recipient of pollutants, contaminants and waste due to agrifood system activities. Carlos des Neves, Chief Scientist of the European Food Safety Authority, spoke of the team work needed to succeed in a One Health approach.

For Dirk Lange, former Head of the Multilateral International Relations Unit in the European Commission's Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety, Codex Alimentarius is an “integral part” of the One Health approach, and Jeta Deda, General Director of the National Food Authority, Albania, highlighted the management and use of data by the Authority and the way this contributes to a One Health-based approach to managing food-animal-plant health-related risks.

Attendees at the event then heard from Giorgi Chakhunashvili from the One Health Division of the National Center for Disease Control and Public Health, Georgia, who explained how Georgia is developing a national action plan on One Health and food safety.

Summarizing the information and experiences offered in the webinar, FAO Food Safety and Consumer Protection Officer, Mary Kenny, said “the webinar outlined the linkages between One Health and food safety”, and she encouraged “food safety practitioners to engage in One Health activities and multidisciplinary work at country level to prevent and manage food safety risks which can be sourced to animals, plants and the environment”.

Peter Sousa Hoejskov, WHO Technical Officer for Food Safety and Zoonotic Diseases concluded that: “Through the One Health Regional Coordination Mechanism, FAO and WHO are working to promote a dialogue among the various sectors responsible for human, animal, and environmental health, including food safety, veterinary science, public health, and environmental science. This webinar contributed to that effort to find innovative solutions to existing and emerging problems together.”

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https://www.fao.org/europe/news/detail/fao--who-focus-on-food-safety-and-one-health/en