Poster competition: Calling all students celebrating World Food Safety Day!

1. FAO and WHO employees and their immediate family members (spouses, parents, children, siblings and their respective spouses, regardless of where they live) or persons living in the same households of such employees, whether or not related, are not eligible to enter the contests. FAO, as the lead organization in 2025, will determine eligibility at its sole discretion.

2. Partners or relations of partner staff of the institutions involved in the launch of contests, and relations of the judging committee are not eligible to compete.

3. FAO, as the lead organization in 2025, reserves the right to disqualify submissions which are not consistent with the Organization’s values and guiding principles.

4. FAO, as the lead organization in 2025, also reserves the right to verify the eligibility of any entry and/or entrant (including an entrant’s identity and address) and to disqualify any entrant who submits an entry that is not in accordance with the Contest Rules, including these Rules, Copyright and Privacy, or who tampers with the entry process.

5. FAO and WHO will not pay any fees, nor pay any costs relating to, participation in any contest or for the use of any submissions in relation to the contest.

6. No logos, URLs, telephone numbers, or calls that solicit directly for monetary donations should be included in any material.

7. FAO and WHO will not be responsible, and cannot be held liable, for incomplete, lost, late, misdirected or illegible entries or for failure to receive entries due to transmission failures or technical failures of any kind, including, without limitation, malfunctioning of any network, hardware or software, whether originating with sender or for any human error, lost/delayed data transmission, or any other error or malfunction.

8. By submitting entries to the contest, entrants agree that personal data, especially name and address, may be processed, shared, and otherwise used in accordance with the FAO Data Protection Policy. The data will be used for the purposes and within the context of the contest, FAO or WHO institutional activities, and any other purposes outlined in these Rules, and it may also be used by FAO or WHO in order to verify the entrant's identity, address and telephone number or to otherwise verify the entrant's eligibility to participate in the contest.

9. Nothing in these General Rules or in any rules for the contests, nor any acts performed or statements made in relation to the contests, shall be deemed a waiver, express or implied, of any of the privileges and immunities of FAO or WHO.

10. Entrants must own the copyright of the material they submit to the contest. If the material contains images of a person or persons, entrants must have obtained the permission and consent of those persons or their legal tutors for submitting the material.

11. The entrant declares that, to the best of his/her knowledge, no third party can claim any rights on the materials submitted.

12. FAO and WHO will not seek additional approvals in connection with the use of the material and it will not be responsible for any claim or complaint alleging violation of the rights of third parties.

13. Copyright of the material remains with the entrants. By entering the contest, entrants grant an irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide exclusive license to FAO and WHO, to reproduce, distribute, display and create derivative works of the entries (along with a name credit) in connection with the contest and the promotion of FAO’s and WHO's work, in, amongst others:

- FAO and WHO corporate websites: www.fao.org and www.who.int, respectively

- corporate videos or digital recordings to illustrate the work of either Organization

- printed FAO and WHO publications, brochures or posters

- social media channels, including promotion of the contest itself

- any other media used by FAO and WHO to communicate.

• The Contest is open to students from 5 years old and above, living anywhere in the world.
• The age to declare on the entry form is the one at the time of entering the Contest. Minors must have the permission of their parents or legal guardians to participate in the Contest.

• Create a poster giving your answer to the question “What makes food safe?”  with the aim of informing consumers about food safety.

• Physical submissions will not be accepted, acknowledged or returned under any circumstances.

• Participation is free of charge. 

• The entry period will begin at 12:00 (CEST) on 7 May 2025 and will close at 12:00 (CEST) on 7 June 2025. 

• Only one entry should be submitted per person. Multiple entries from one person will result in disqualification.  

• Poster entries may be drawn, painted or sketched using pens, pencils, crayons or charcoal, or using oil, acrylic or watercolour paint, as well as mixed media. Digitally created artwork is also permitted. No photographs are allowed. 

• Participants may not submit any entries which include content generated by any generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool, including but not limited to photorealistic imagery, graphics or other artistic media.  Participants are allowed to use AI technology for ideation or editing purposes. Whenever a participant uses AI technology for these or any other purposes, they shall disclose how such technology was specifically used. Should AI have been used in a way that is not compliant with these rules, FAO, as the lead organization in 2025, reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to disqualify the entry from the competition.

• Poster entries may or may not include text. If text is used, no more than 25 words or 100 characters can be accepted. Do not include personal information, such as names, school names or age, etc. Submissions will be accepted in all six UN languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish).

• All artwork must be original and should not include logos or photographic images of the Contestant or other personal information.

• All participants are encouraged to read about the World Food Safety Day theme in the World Food Safety Day toolkit. Younger children may want to learn together with a parent or teacher.

• Posters can only be submitted using the entry form provided below. All fields in the Contest entry form must be completed and after uploading the poster design, the ENTER button must be clicked. Younger children may need help from an adult in making their online submission.  

• Only digital files saved as a PDF will be accepted and submissions must be made through the online form provided – please do not send in physical posters. 

• 5 posters in each category (30 posters) will be selected for the shortlist by the screening committee and notified on & July 2025.  Shortlisted candidates will receive a certificate for this achievement. 

• Six winning poster designs will be selected as finalists by a jury in each category. The winning poster designs from all regions will be announced on the World Food Safety Day website.

• Winners will be promoted on FAO social media.

• Winners will also receive a Certificate of Recognition and a surprise gift bag. 

• In the event that any of the selected winner(s) of any prize is/are ineligible in accordance with these Contest rules and/or the General Rules, Copyright and Privacy, cannot be traced, or refuses the prize, the prize will be forfeited and it will be in the sole discretion of FAO, as the lead organization in 2025, to choose whether to award the prize to another eligible entry. 

• When winning posters are published, only the first initial, full family name and country of origin will be published. No other personal information about the Contestants will be published or shared.