WHO and FOOD SAFETY

Food Safety WHO/F. Fontannaz Unsafe food causes many acute and life-long diseases, ranging from diarrhoeal diseases to various forms of cancer. WHO estimates that foodborne and waterborne diarrhoeal diseases taken together kill about 2.2 million people annually, 1.9 million of them children. Foodborne diseases and threats to food safety constitute a growing public health problem and WHO's mission is to assist Member States to strengthen their programmes for improving the safety of food all the way from production to final consumption. The approaches are outlined in the WHO Global Strategy for Food Safety. Food safety – together with nutrition and food security – is one of WHO’s 13 strategic objectives for 2008-2013. More about the work of WHO in food safety. RECENT PUBLICATIONS Food Safety News No 37 20 April 2010 Pesticide residues in food - 2009. Report of the JMPR. FAO Plant Production and Protection Paper 196, 2009 18 March 2010 Safety evaluation of certain food additives. WHO Food Additives Series No. 62, 2010 18 March 2010 Summary report of the 72nd JECFA meeting (contaminants) 16 March 2010 OTHER 10 facts on food safety UPCOMING EVENTS Joint FAO/WHO Expert meeting to review toxicological and health aspects of Bisphenol A, Canada,November 2010 Joint FAO/WHO Expert Meeting on Risk Assessment Tools for Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Vibrio vulnificus Associated with Seafoods, September 2010 Seventy-third meeting of the JECFA (additives and contaminants), 9-17 June 2010 CALL FOR DATA AND EXPERTS JECFA: Call for experts JMPR: Call for experts JEMRA: V. Parahaemolyticus & V. Vulnificus in seafood - Call for data and experts

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