With the right support and commitment, everyone can enjoy safe healthy food – including residents of the climate-challenged Dry Corridor of Honduras
©FAO/Eduardo Calix

Working together for food safety

Food safety is as much about global standard-setting and international cooperation as about individual and community awareness.

FAO works in close collaboration with other UN agencies, national and international organizations and research centres, as well as food business operators and other stakeholders. And, of course, we work with our Members.

Together, we provide scientific advice, develop international food standards and share knowledge, especially during emergencies. We implement international sanitary and phytosanitary standards, build capacities in developing and adopting nuclear techniques, and tackle food safety issues throughout the food chain.

FAO’s partners

FAO’s longstanding partnership with WHO covers a range of activities which support global food safety and protect consumer health. FAO addresses food safety issues along the food supply chain, while WHO works with the public health sector to lower the burden of foodborne diseases.
FAO works closely with the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH, founded as OIE) to enhance the responsibilities and effectiveness of veterinary services in improving food safety, at both international and national level, as well as in addressing antimicrobial resistance effectively.

FAO is part of the Standards and Trade Development Facility, a global partnership hosted by WTO that supports developing countries in building capacity to implement international sanitary and phytosanitary standards and requirements, and thereby help gain and maintain market access, agricultural productivity and domestic food safety.
FAO works with the World Food Programme (WFP) to tackle food safety issues especially at country level, where smallholder farmers are involved in supplying food for humanitarian assistance and school feeding programmes.
In close cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), FAO, through the Joint FAO/IAEA Centre (Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture), assists its Members in developing and adopting nuclear and related techniques that offer science-based solutions to regulating food safety.

Nuclear techniques in food safety

Nuclear science has multiple food safety applications. Launched in 1964, the Joint FAO/IAEA Centre (Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture) (CJN) has made available to Member States more than 200 analytical methods and tools for detecting residues and contaminants in food.

In Bangladesh, thanks to CJN, isotopic and nuclear-based approaches are being used to test eggs, milk, chicken or shrimp samples for antimicrobial residues and mycotoxins. CJN is now building capacity for food microbiological analysis, including for foodborne zoonoses.

The commercial use of irradiation as a phytosanitary pest prevention measure is enabling Viet Nam to trade in agricultural products that would otherwise be restricted by risk-based controls on the shipment of fresh commodities. Irradiation of premium quality fruits, supported by CJN, has guaranteed exports worth USD 20 million to the United States of America alone.

As well as residues of veterinary drugs and pesticides, heavy metals and biotoxins, CJN methods can be used to detect and combat food fraud and adulteration; determine and trace food origins; and attain international accreditation that boosts trade and consumer confidence.

The CJN Food Contaminant and Residue Information System (FCRIS) database is freely available. The body’s scientific papers and laboratory manuals can be easily accessed online.

Collecting data on the food we eat

Dietary data – information about what and how much people eat and drink – can yield important insights about nutrition and food safety.

Many policymakers and programme managers rely on dietary information gathered at the national or household level. But this may conceal crucial data about individuals such as adolescent girls, pregnant and breastfeeding women, small children, adult males, and so on.

FAO and WHO have developed the Global Individual Food consumption data Tool – FAO/WHO GIFT – to address such shortcomings. An open-access repository of dietary data, FAO/WHO GIFT makes information about what people eat and drink available to governments and other concerned parties, to help estimate exposure to chemical and biological hazards. Additionally, FAO and WHO are jointly collecting chronic individual food consumption data in the database called CIFOCOss.

Vulnerable population groups, such as women of child-bearing age, infants and young children, can be identified by the data, disaggregated by gender and age to allow focused analysis.

View consumption data by country

World Food Safety Day

The food supply chain is brittle and easily disrupted. The consequences of safety breaches can be rapid, widespread and fatal. Whether we draft policy, grow, process, transport, store, distribute, sell or prepare food, we have the power to promote food safety and protect health.

The seventh of June was declared World Food Safety Day by the United Nations General Assembly in 2018. And despite the COVID-19 pandemic forcing the occasion online in recent years, the event has continued to grow, along with the number of countries choosing to participate.

Since the very start, the motto of World Food Safety Day has been “Food safety is everyone’s business”. As the world’s leading food agency, we at FAO believe this slogan speaks to the universal relevance of food safety, and to our duty to collaborate if we wish to achieve it.

The Day is about building greater awareness and inspiring action in food safety.

Food safety is indeed a collective aim. It begins with simple actions like washing one’s hands and runs through to the complex scientific evaluation of chemical compounds and the isolation of pathogens. And it demands robust governance, along with the sharing of information.

We all have a role in keeping ourselves, and others, safe.