Today, let’s chat about how the World Health Organization (WHO) plans to help countries keep track of illnesses that can spread through food. They are going to start a new group to do this. This group will help countries find and stop these illnesses.
In May, a meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, is planned to set up what’s called the WHO Alliance for Food Safety. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is giving them a hand to make it happen.
Last year, countries decided that making our food safer is super important. They chose five big goals to make sure everyone is working together to make food safety better.
One of the goals is to make different groups, like health experts and food safety inspectors, work together when there’s a problem with our food. They will use a group called INFOSAN to help with this. INFOSAN has been around since 2004 and has lots of members from many countries.
But there’s no big, organized plan yet for keeping track of illnesses that come from food. They want to get better at this by 2030, using special tools to measure how well they’re doing.
The WHO is also thinking about starting up the Global Foodborne Infections Network (GFN) again, making use of its big team of experts. These experts come from research centers and universities, and their job is to help WHO’s work on food safety. From 2000 to 2015, the GFN worked with people from all sorts of fields like animal health, food, and public health. They helped countries get better at finding and stopping illnesses that spread through food and water. They made sure scientists and health people could work well together.
The WHO is also checking in to see how big the problem of foodborne illnesses is around the world and will share new information by 2025.
Now, let’s talk about something fun – World Food Safety Day! This year, it’s all about being ready for surprises that could affect our food. The theme is “Food safety – prepare for the unexpected.” It’s about knowing what to do if, say, your power goes out or if there’s a big alert about unsafe food. Being prepared helps make sure our food stays safe.
The next World Food Safety Day is on June 7, and it’s also the 20th anniversary of INFOSAN. Experts remind us that while food safety problems can be small or big, we can always do something to keep our food safe. Remember to mark your calendars for World Food Safety Day and think about how you can be ready for any food surprises!
That’s all for today’s food safety scoop! Stay healthy and safe, and remember to always keep an eye on what you eat!