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Improving food safety along the food chain - Fact sheet N.3

Capacity development in food safety and food quality








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    Brochure, flyer, fact-sheet
    Guideline
    Food safety guidelines: Keeping workers safe along the food supply chain in acutely food insecure contexts
    Webinar – 30 June 2021: Summary points, questions and answers
    2021
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    Keeping food and food workers safe is even more complex during a global pandemic crisis and all stakeholders must contribute to maintaining 360 degree oversight of every aspect of the food supply chain. Workers in the food supply chain play an indispensable role in sustaining the movement of food along the supply chain. Therefore, keeping workers, production facilities, transport infrastructure and all other areas in the supply chain safe, is critical for mitigating the impacts of this unprecedented COVID-19 crisis. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in a longstanding partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO), is involved in a range of initiatives to support global food safety and protect the health of both consumers and workers. As part of the comprehensive COVID-19 response and recovery programme, FAO and its partners are working to prevent the pandemic from disrupting food systems. While COVID-19 is not transmitted by food products, disruptions precipitated by the primary and secondary effects of the pandemic have put food supplies at risk all over the world, while simultaneously raising awareness on food safety-related issues. Concerted efforts on the food supply chain and more specifically the health and safety of workers, will help the most food insecure countries mitigate the socio-economic impacts of the pandemic and boost resilience for the long term by facilitating food and agricultural trade, preventing the spreading of any future zoonotic pandemic and helping the transition of the food systems towards sustainability. FAO, in the publication "Food safety in the time of COVID-19", provides sound principles of environmental sanitation, personal hygiene and established food safety practices to reduce the likelihood that harmful pathogens will threaten the safety of the food supply. Additionally, component IV of FAO’s COVID-19 Global Humanitarian Response Plan is supporting awareness raising and sensitization campaigns among food workers at all levels. Against this background, the webinar aimed at bringing together an array of diverse partners and experts to discuss issues surrounding occupational health and safety risks along the food supply chain. The discussion focused on food safety guidelines as well as the experiences and learnings from different contexts among the most acutely food insecure countries.
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    Article
    Journal article
    Making food systems more resilient to food safety risks by including artificial intelligence, big data, and internet of things into food safety early warning and emerging risk identification tools 2024
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    To enhance the resilience of food systems to food safety risks, it is vitally important for national authorities and international organizations to be able to identify early signals of emerging food safety risks and to provide early warning in a timely manner. This review provides an overview of existing and experimental applications of artificial intelligence (AI), big data, and internet of things tools and methods as part of early warning and emerging risk identification in the food safety domain. There is an ongoing rapid development of systems fed by numerous, real-time, and diverse data with the aim of early warning and identification of emerging food safety risks. The suitability of big data and AI to support such systems is illustrated by two cases in which climate change drives the emergence of risks, namely, harmful algal blooms affecting seafood and fungal growth and mycotoxin formation in crops. Automation and machine learning are crucial for the development of future real-time food safety risk early warning systems. Although these developments and tools increase the feasibility and effectiveness of prospective early warning and emerging risk identification, their implementation may prove challenging, particularly for low- and middle-income countries due to low connectivity and data availability. It is advocated to overcome these challenges by improving the capability and capacity of national authorities, as well as by enhancing their collaboration with the private sector and international organizations.
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    Brochure, flyer, fact-sheet
    Brochure
    Food loss analysis causes and solutions: Cabbage supply chain in Cianjur, West Java, Indonesia. Fact Sheet 2023
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    Cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata) is a popular vegetable to grow among Indonesian smallholder farmers due to high demand and relatively easy cultivation. Post-harvest is a critical stage in the cabbage supply chain because it determines the product saleability and price. However, poor handling practices and careless quality control can lead to significant food loss and consequently reduce the profit margins for all actors along the supply chain.

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    High-profile
    Código de conducta voluntario para la reducción de las pérdidas y el desperdicio de alimentos 2022
    La pérdida y el desperdicio de alimentos tienen implicaciones para muchos de los desafíos actuales. Una parte significativa de las pérdidas y el desperdicio de alimentos ocurre a lo largo de las cadenas que vinculan el lugar de producción los alimentos con el lugar de consumo. Simultáneamente, hay cientos de millones de personas subalimentadas y miles de millones que no pueden permitirse una dieta saludable. La pérdida y el desperdicio de alimentos contribuyen al cambio climático y ejercen una inmensa presión sobre los recursos naturales, los ecosistemas y la biodiversidad, poniendo en peligro nuestra capacidad y la capacidad de generaciones futuras para garantizar la seguridad alimentaria, nutrición y medios de vida sin superar umbrales críticos de la sostenibilidad del ambiente natural. Elaborado en atención a una solicitud formulada por el Comité de Agricultura (COAG) de la FAO en 2018 y aprobado por la Conferencia de la FAO en su 42.º período de sesiones, en junio de 2021, este Código de conducta voluntario para la reducción de las pérdidas y el desperdicio de alimentos presenta un marco de medidas genérico y los principios rectores que deberían seguirse para reducir las pérdidas y el desperdicio de alimentos y promover al mismo tiempo sistemas alimentarios más eficientes, inclusivos, resilientes y sostenibles. Los gobiernos pueden usar el marco como base para la elaboración de estrategias, políticas y leyes; así como para formular programas de reducción de las pérdidas y el desperdicio de alimentos y para preparar directrices técnicas destinadas a profesionales de estos ámbitos.
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    Book (series)
    Flagship
    The State of Food and Agriculture 2019
    Moving forward on food loss and waste reduction
    2019
    The need to reduce food loss and waste is firmly embedded in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Food loss and waste reduction is considered important for improving food security and nutrition, promoting environmental sustainability and lowering production costs. However, efforts to reduce food loss and waste will only be effective if informed by a solid understanding of the problem. This report provides new estimates of the percentage of the world’s food lost from production up to the retail level. The report also finds a vast diversity in existing estimates of losses, even for the same commodities and for the same stages in the supply chain. Clearly identifying and understanding critical loss points in specific supply chains – where considerable potential exists for reducing food losses – is crucial to deciding on appropriate measures. The report provides some guiding principles for interventions based on the objectives being pursued through food loss and waste reductions, be they in improved economic efficiency, food security and nutrition, or environmental sustainability.
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    Book (series)
    Guideline
    Développement de l’aquaculture. 4. Une approche écosystémique de l’aquaculture. 2011
    Les dimensions sociales et biophysiques des écosystèmes sont inextricablement liées de telle manière qu’un changement dans une seule dimension est très susceptible de générer un changement dans une autre. Bien que le changement est une conséquence naturelle des interactions complexes, il doit être surveillé et même géré si le taux et la direction du changement risquent de compromettre la résilience du système. “Une approche écosystémique de l’aquaculture (AEA) est une stratégie pou r l’intégration de l’activité dans l’écosystème élargi de telle sorte qu’elle favorise le développement durable, l’équité et la résilience de l’interconnexion des systèmes socio-écologiques.” Etant une stratégie, l’approche écosystémique de l’aquaculture (AEA) n’est pas ce qu’on a fait, mais plutôt comment on l’a fait. La participation des parties intéressées est à la base de la stratégie. L’AEA exige un cadre politique approprié dans lequel la stratégie se développe en plusieurs é tapes: (i) la portée et la définition des limites des écosystèmes et l’identification de la partie intéressée; (ii) l’identification des problèmes principaux; (iii) la hiérarchisation des problèmes; (iv) la définition des objectifs opérationnels; (v) l’élaboration d’un plan de mise en oeuvre; (vi) le processus de mise en oeuvre correspondant qui comprend le renforcement, le suivi et l’évaluation, et (vii) un critique des politiques à long terme. Toutes ces étapes sont informées par les meilleures connaissances disponibles. La mise en oeuvre de l’AEA exigera le renforcement des institutions et des systèmes de gestion associés de sorte qu’une approche intégrée du développement de l’aquaculture peut être mise en oeuvre et compte entièrement des besoins et des impacts d’autres secteurs. La clé sera de développer des institutions capables d’intégration, notamment en fonction des objectifs et des normes convenus. L’adoption généralisée d’une AEA exigera un couplag e plus étroit de la science, la politique et la gestion. Elle exige aussi que les gouvernements incluent l’AEA dans leurs politiques de développement de l’aquaculture, stratégies et plans de développement.