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WHO's mega meet on food safety starts in Abu Dhabi

Rohit Shishodia
The second Global Meeting of the International Food Safety Authorities Network has started in Abu Dhabi. The conference, which will conclude on December 11, 2019, has participation of food safety authorities and experts from 135 countries for the first time in a decade.

The experts will call for stronger action to protect people’s health, safeguard national and global economies from the effects of ever more complex food borne disease outbreaks.

The event is being organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The conference is being hosted by the Abu Dhabi Agriculture and Food Safety Authority (ADAFSA).

The WHO said that unsafe food containing harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites or chemical substances, causes more than 200 diseases – ranging from diarrhoea to cancers.

According to WHO, an estimated 600 million – almost 1 in 10 people in the world – fall ill after eating contaminated food and 420 000 die every year. Children under 5 years of age carry 40% of the foodborne disease burden, with 125 000 deaths every year.

“Increasing numbers of ever more complex food-borne disease outbreaks are claiming lives, causing sickness and threatening future health and economies,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.

“Countries must invest in technologies that trace food safety emergencies. They also must be transparent in sharing information on outbreaks to prevent their cross-border spread and the risk to health they pose,” he added.

INFOSAN is a global network of 190 national food safety authorities, managed jointly by WHO and FAO. The network supports governments in managing food safety risks, ensuring rapid sharing of information during food safety emergencies to stop the spread of contaminated food from one country to another.


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