Antimicrobial resistance (AMR; also used for "antimicrobial resistant" in this document) is a major global public health concern and a food safety issue. When pathogens become resistant to antimicrobial agents they can pose a greater human health risk as a result of potential treatment failure, loss of treatment options and increased likelihood and severity of disease. Problems related to AMR are inherently related to antimicrobial use in any environment, including human and non-human uses. The use of antimicrobial agents in food producing animals/crops provides a potentially important risk factor for selection and dissemination of AMR microorganisms and determinants from animals/food crops to humans via the consumption of food

This document contains food additive specifications monographs, analytical methods and other information, prepared at the sixty-ninth meeting of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), which was held in Rome, Italy, from 17 to 26 June 2008. The specifications monographs provide information on the identity and purity of food additives used directly in foods or in food production. The main three objectives of these specifications are to identify the food additive that has been subjected to testing for safety, to ensure that the additive is of the quality required for use in food or in processing, and to reflect and encourage good manufacturing practice. This publication and other documents produced by JECFA contain information that is useful to...

This report draws attention to the threat of viruses as a risk to public health when they are present in food. Viruses require special attention because they behave differently from bacteria, and because currently used control measures typically either have not been validated and there is not a good understanding of their efficacy towards viruses, or are not effective in controlling virus contamination. Data from recent studies have shown that foodborne viral infections are very common in many parts of the world despite the measures already in place to reduce bacterial contamination.

This FAO/WHO Expert meeting was convened on 5-9 May 2008 in Bangkok, Thailand, to address the request for scientific advice received from the 39th Session of the Codex Committee on Food Hygiene (CCFH) on the microbiological hazards associated with leafy vegetables and herbs. In responding to the questions posed by the CCFH, the meeting addressed the pathways for contamination, survival and persistence of microbiological hazards associated with leafy vegetables and herbs, and the potential management options from primary production through to the consumer. Consideration was given to all aspects of the farm to fork continuum, i.e. including pre-harvest and post-harvest.

E. sakazakii (Cronobacter spp.) is a Gram-negative, motile, peritrichous non-spore forming, facultative anaerobic bacterium. It is an opportunistic pathogen and has been linked with serious infections in infants (FAO/WHO, 2004, 2006; Mullane et al., 2007a), notably following the consumption of PIF. Often described as an emerging pathogen, E. sakazakii (Cronobacter spp.) can cause bacteraemia and meningitis in infants and has also been isolated from infants in association with necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). The first cases attributed to this organism occurred in 1958 in England (Urmenyi and Franklin, 1961). Since then and up to July 2008, the meeting has identified around 120 documented cases of E. sakazakii infection and at least 27 deaths from all parts of the world, in the published...

The process of developing exposure assessment guidelines was initiated at a workshop held in Seattle, Washington, United States of America, from 5 to 9 December 2001. The workshop participants were scientists currently involved in exposure assessment of foodborne microbiological hazard in humans or animals. The document drafted during this workshop was subsequently reviewed by the workshop participants, and a revised draft prepared. This was then reviewed by another group of external peer reviewers. The guidelines were finalized taking into account all comments received. These guidelines are part of a series of guidelines on microbiological risk assessment being prepared by FAO and WHO. Guidelines on Hazard Characterization for Pathogens in Food and Water have already been published as number 3 of...

Vibrio parahaemolyticus are common causes of diarrhoeal disease worldwide. These marine micro-organisms, native in estuarine waters globally, concentrate in the gut of filter-feeding molluscan shellfish, such as oysters, clams and mussels. Raw and undercooked seafood, including finfish, represent the principal vehicle of transmission to humans. This volume considers the applicability of an assessment of the public health impact of raw oyster consumption, developed in one country, to assess the public health risk associated with the consumption of raw oysters harvested in other countries where different growing and harvesting scenarios might exist. The approach is also applied to bloody clams and finfish to establish if such a risk assessment can also be adapted to other types of shellfish and finfish. This...

The Expert Meeting was jointly organized by the Animal Production and Health Division and the Nutrition and Consumer Protection Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Department of Food Safety, Zoonoses and Foodborne Diseases of the World Health Organization (WHO), to review current knowledge on animal feed and its impact on food safety and international food and feed trade, and to provide orientation advice on this matter to their Members and to international organizations. The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) kindly joined this effort and was an important resource.