Through various interactive discussion sessions, the Second Global Meeting of Joint FAO/WHO International Food Safety Authority Network (INFOSAN) strengthened the sense of community among the 300 participants from 135 countries on 9-11 December 2019, as described in the newly released report. Held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, the meeting was hosted by the Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority (ADAFSA) and co-organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). The report outlines the various sessions of the meeting, which was about bringing together INFOSAN members to discuss recent developments...

On 12 June 2020, the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Meetings on Microbiological Risk Assessment (JEMRA) paid a short tribute to World Food Safety Day with a video screening. The video was of particular significance because several of the meeting participants had been involved in the recording. Experts, resource persons and members of the FAO and WHO Secretariats participating in the meeting on Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC), currently underway until 30 June, appeared in the video to explain a bit about the role of scientists in food safety. This message tied in with the overall 2020 theme for the UN day: Food safety, everyone’s business. JEMRA...

This year World Food Safety Day celebrations started early – with INFOSAN members gathering for webinars on ‘safe food in markets’ in mid-May – and will run until at least mid-June when the Republic of Korea holds its 19th national celebration of food safety. With limitations on gatherings and travel in many countries due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many of the events that were to be held in person have been moved online. The event that WHO was to host with FAO in Geneva is an example. In a live session on Facebook on Friday 5 June,...

Given the current absence of international guidance and regulations, a Joint FAO/WHO Expert Meeting on Tropane Alkaloids was convened remotely on 30 March-3 April 2020 to provide scientific advice that will allow for appropriate risk management options for products used by the World Food Programme in delivering food assistance in emergencies. Tropane alkaloids are a group of compounds occurring in several plant families of the Solanaceae genera that can contaminate staples like cereals and grains. The key discussions and outcomes of the expert meeting have been captured in this executive summary.   This meeting is part of the FAO Scientific Advice Programme,...

While the effects of climate change on global food production and food security are widely known, the impacts on food safety are still not well understood. A new FAO publication, Climate change: Unpacking the burden on food safety, sets forth detailed scientific descriptions of how climate change is threatening the safety of food - sourced from both land and sea - and outlines how the exposure to a number of foodborne hazards could increase across the world.“A single environmental factor like increase in temperature can trigger varying degrees of effect on different food hazards globally,” said Keya Mukherjee,...