How is the cell-based production technology carried out? Where can we find cell-based food products? What are the benefits of cell-based food? What has been done to ensure food safety? These are the questions people may have when they hear of cell-based food products. They are no longer “future” products, as one of them has been already carefully assessed and approved by one country. The commercial landscape for cell-based food is fast expanding with various companies developing assorted products around the world. To initiate open discussions among stakeholders, FAO and the Ministry of Health of Israel will hold a stakeholder roundtable meeting...

What’s the connection between food safety and food security? That is the subject of a new video produced by FAO in all six official UN languages, explaining that food safety is part of food security. Food security means having regular access to enough safe and nutritious food to lead an active and healthy life. “That makes food safety an integral part of food security,” the text on screen reads. To end hunger and achieve food security, we must ensure access to safe food for all. FAO leads international efforts to defeat hunger worldwide and works to strengthen food safety as part of its...

Jeffrey LeJeune, FAO Food Safety Officer, and WHO Scientist, Simone Moraes Raszl joined a social media live Q&A event on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube on Monday, 6 June 2022, as part of this year’s World Food Safety Day celebrations. Interested to learn more about “safer food, better health”? Read more here  Watch the recording

For World Food Safety Day this year a fun filter is available for use on Instagram and Facebook. With an interactive food basket on their heads, users are asked practical questions about food safety, to which they answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ with a tilt of the head, left or right. Test your knowledge about hand hygiene and safe food storage, record your efforts and tag @FAO in your video post. It’s also a way to raise awareness and inspire action on World Food Safety Day. Access the filter On your phone, click on the below links Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ar/477261520869212/ Facebook:...

Five new leaflets have been produced by FAO and WHO and released today as part of the materials for this year’s observance of World Food Safety Day. The two-page leaflets offer information and advice on food safety for the people in different settings where food is produced or consumed. These include workplaces, traditional food markets, street food vending, schools and daycare centres and the home. Advice includes making use of WHO’s Five Keys to Safer Food, ensuring good hand hygiene, providing employees with facilities to safely store and heat food, and teaching young people how to ensure their food is safe. Access the...

Jorge Pinto Ferreira, FAO Food Safety Officer, gave a presentation, on 23 May 2022, that was part of a webinar series organized by the University of Georgia Center for Food Safety (USA). The presentation was entitled “Are Food Safety and AMR Friends on Instagram?” The interconnections between several different disciplines, when it comes to antimicrobial resistance (AMR), were highlighted as well as the sometimes not so obvious link between food safety, food security and AMR. It was also a good opportunity to present the ACT (Antimicrobial Codex Texts) project, funded by the Republic of Korea, that FAO is carrying out...

Together with WHO, FAO will host an online event to mark the Day. The 7 June event will start with video messages from the Directors-General of FAO and WHO, followed by a question-and-answer session with WHO Assistant Director-General Naoko Yamamoto and Director of the FAO Liaison Office with the United Nations in Geneva Dominique Burgeon. They will answer questions about how systemic change can bring safer food and how our behaviour, the way we build food systems and how we organize food supply chains can prevent most foodborne diseases. The second part of the event will feature a panel discussion about...

Government representatives, farmers, academics and food business operators met for a workshop in Siem Reap, Cambodia on 16-18 May 2022 to review efforts to contain foodborne antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The workshop was part of an FAO project that sees the participation of six countries, of which Cambodia is one, seeking to raise awareness, step up collaboration and stop foodborne AMR by implementing the related Codex standards. We spoke with Jorge Pinto Ferreira, FAO Food Safety Officer, who was there. -          What was the meeting in Siem Reap, Cambodia about? It was a Progressive Management Pathway (PMP) workshop, in this case an activity of the...

The Global Food Safety Resource (GFSR) recently published an article on the food safety aspects of edible insects, written by Keya Mukherjee, FAO Food Safety Specialist, and Vittorio Fattori, FAO Food Safety Officer. While edible insects can come with various potential benefits – environmental, nutritional and economic – these benefits must be weighed against possible challenges, such as food safety issues. This premise has been covered in detail in an FAO document published in 2021, Looking at edible insects from a food safety perspective. Challenges and opportunities for the sector. Topics such edible insects, seaweeds, cell-based food and...

Microbes are all around us. Many are beneficial and have been harnessed to transform fruits, vegetables and grains into food and beverages we enjoy like bread, injera, beer, wine, kimchi and chocolate. On the other hand, other microorganisms - including viruses, bacteria and fungi - can cause infections and diseases in humans, animals and plants, too. The health of plants, animals, people and the environment are all inextricably interconnected - a concept known as “One Health”. A prime example of One Health principles is that when plants become infected with microorganisms, they can become sick, not grow as well and thereby...