Food Safety at the WHO Executive Board
WHO Headquarters – January 2010
The WHO Executive Board (EB) discussed the issue of food safety and forwarded a suggestion for a new resolution on "Advancing Food Safety Initiatives" to the 63rd World Health Assembly (WHA) in May 2010.
The resolution contains clear directions to strengthen WHO's food safety work in relation to: a) building INFOSAN, adding food safety data-generation and data-sharing to its portfolio, b) monitoring and reporting on the burden of foodborne and zoonotic diseases, c) advancing the provision and sharing of international scientific advice, and d) focusing on the public health aspects of zoonotic diseases originating at the human-animal interface. The WHO Department for Food safety and Zoonoses (FOS) will use these directions (when approved by the WHA), to strengthen a coherent, integrated work-plan covering science, burden estimation, food safety management and communication and general coordination of zoonoses prevention. This will be done in collaboration with other Departments within WHO, as well as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations ( FAO ) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). Information about the EB resolution is available at: http://apps.who.int/gb/ebwha/pdf_files/EB126/B126_R7-en.pdf.
Read more about the 2010-2011 directions of FOS activities at: www.who.int/foodsafety/about/en.