Communities for food safety

“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.”?–?Mother Teresa

Hello from Geneva,

A couple of weeks ago, I returned from my first official travel in three years! I enjoyed the personal connection and the feeling of belonging derived from in-person meetings. Still, I cannot avoid thinking that as we get back to the "old normal" (before the pandemic), the "new normal" has not freed us yet from the demands of virtual meetings everywhere, all the time. Not only are the meetings in hybrid mode, but so are we. We travel long distances to attend an event, and despite our out-of-the-office message, we are expected to join virtually other meetings happening in opposite time zones - we stretch our day and night.

In the old normal, we used to be reasonably present in one place. We should rescue this good practice, I think.

WHO Food Safety Community of Practice

Ten months ago, the World Health Organization launched a community of practice for food safety (COP). The COP aims to connect food safety practitioners and experts from all over the world interested in sharing/exchanging knowledge and resources to improve everyone's practice and, hopefully, our culture. The response was immediate, with more than 2,000 people from all sectors eagerly joining.

We started with a mailing list; however, it soon became apparent that it was insufficient to encourage dialogue and sharing. Last month, after testing different options, we finally launched a new interactive platform for the community. Join here and start sharing!

Echoes from the World Food Safety Day 2022

Celebrated every year on June 7, World Food Safety Day is the epitome of how the global food safety community comes together to raise awareness about this area of work. This year the theme was "Safer food, better health".

There has been an increasing trend in the uptake of the celebration. In 2022:

• There were at least 450 events registered in 109 countries.
• The exposure of the hashtag #WorldFoodSafetyDay on Twitter was 818 Million! If we consider the hashtag's use on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook, the number is higher than 1 billion. WOW!
• The theme poster was produced in 44 languages.
• The live event was watched by at least 40,000 people on different social media platforms.

Have you tested your food safety knowledge lately? Try these cards and infographic ??. WHO and FAO produced a series of campaign and technical materials to facilitate the organizing of the celebration and, more importantly, the advocacy for the importance of food safety in schools and daycare centres, traditional food markets, street food vending, workplaces, and at home. All of them are available in the 6 UN languages.

Take a look at this year's report and photo stock. I am sure you will feel pumped and ready for the next year!

A network for Food Safety Authorities

An increasingly interconnected global food supply means that risks posed by unsafe food have the potential to rapidly evolve from a local problem to an international emergency. Food Safety Authorities must be connected to rapidly exchange information and implement risk mitigation measures to prevent foodborne illness and save lives.?

Since its creation in 2004, the FAO/WHO International Food Safety Authorities Network (INFOSAN) has facilitated the rapid exchange of information across borders and between members during hundreds of food safety events -some involving more than 100 countries at once. The quarterly reports summarise INFOSAN's activities - I am sure you will find them highly informative.

Global targets for food safety

On October 17 2022, WHO launched the WHO Global Strategy for Food Safety 2022-2030, adopted by Member States at the 75th Session of the World Health Assembly -?Resolution WHA75(22). The launch marks a milestone in WHO work to promote health, keep the world safe and protect the vulnerable.

The WHO Global Food Safety Strategy has been developed to guide and support Member States in their efforts to prioritize, plan, implement, monitor and regularly evaluate actions towards reducing the burden of foodborne diseases (FBD) by continuously strengthening food safety systems and promoting global cooperation.

For the first time ever, the strategy includes global targets for reducing foodborne diseases. While they may be imperfect and insufficient, global targets in different areas have helped align efforts from multiple actors towards improved investment, action, and accountability. If that happens with the WHO Food Safety Strategy and its targets, that can only lead to more impact and a stronger community.

See you next time. Keep creating positive ripples.

Luz