With the growth in the international trade in food comes the need to be able to prevent, detect and manage foodborne diseases across borders. Foodborne diseases can occur even when there are robust food control systems in place and can cause illness across the globe. In these cases, the FAO/WHO International Food Safety Authorities Network (INFOSAN) facilitates the rapid exchange of the information needed between different national authorities to enable them to address cases of foodborne disease outbreak in a timely and effective manner.

When there was an outbreak of food poisoning across Europe in 2021, relevant food safety authorities had procedures in place to identify the nature of the illness, what food was causing it and where that food had originated. These procedures meant the Food Standards Authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (FSA UK) determined quite quickly, thanks to data sharing and collaboration with authorities in other European countries, that they were dealing with an outbreak of Salmonella Braenderup contamination of melons originating from Honduras.

FSA UK informed INFOSAN and thus initiated correspondence with the authorities in Honduras, where a plan was quickly put into action that would identify the single source of contamination in a small company in southern Honduras. That plan was based on then-draft Codex Guidelines on the management of biological foodborne outbreaks (CXG 96-2022), which provided the guidance and advice necessary for Honduran officers to find the equivalent of a needle in a haystack.

"These guidelines provide point-by-point advice, first on how to prepare for and then how to manage foodborne outbreaks as well as providing guidance on how to continuously improve preparedness and response systems" - said Sarah Cahill, Codex Secretary - "This story from Honduras is an excellent example of how Codex texs play an important role in supporting an guiding national authorities in managing food safety issues".

This is an example that demonstrates the value both of INFOSAN and of Codex texts, and it has been retold in a Codex publication and in the below video.

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How Honduras handled the unexpected - Codex case study: Honduras (Codex publication)

Guidelines on the management of biological foodborne outbreaks (CXG 96-2022) (Codex text)