INFOSAN has been connecting national authorities worldwide since 2004. Its goal has been to prevent the international spread of contaminated food and foodborne disease and strengthen food safety systems globally. This has been done by 1. promoting the rapid exchange of information during food safety events; 2. sharing information on important food safety issues of global interest; 3. promoting partnership and collaboration between countries and networks; and 4. helping countries to strengthen their capacity to manage food safety emergencies. Since its inception, the INFOSAN Secretariat has facilitated international communications between members during hundreds of food safety events; including 162 during the 2018/2019 biennium, double the number of events dealt with in the previous biennium. This INFOSAN Activity Report provides an overview of the major events, activities and information products relating to INFOSAN in 2018/2019. The report highlights some achievements from the biennium, as well as challenges to overcome and areas for improvement. INFOSAN aims to be a member-driven network and thus a united and sustained effort must be made by all INFOSAN members for the network to reach its full potential.

This Open Access book compiles the findings of the Scientific Group of the United Nations Food Systems Summit 2021 and its research partners. The Scientific Group was an independent group of 28 food systems scientists from all over the world with a mandate from the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations. The chapters provide science- and research-based, state-of-the-art, solution-oriented knowledge and evidence to inform the transformation of contemporary food systems in order to achieve more sustainable, equitable and resilient systems.

This book aims to contribute the knowledge and understanding of nutritional impact of food systems. Focus is also be given to food systems elements status identification, policy analysis to examine potential effects of different policy options throughout the food system, in particular policies in agriculture, food marketing and trade, social protection, gender, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) on food industry, nutrition, and environment and education etc. Good practice and lessons learnt to strengthen the beneficiary countries’ evidence-base for addressing nutrition related challenges from the food system perspective.

The new WHO Global Strategy for Food Safety 2022-2030 was adopted by the Seventy-fifth World Health Assembly in 2022. The updated strategy addresses current and emerging challenges, incorporates new technologies and includes innovative approaches for strengthening food safety systems. The target audience includes policy-makers (national and subnational governments), technical authorities/agencies responsible for food safety, academia, food business operators (FBOs) and private sectors, consumers, civil societies, UN agencies and WHO staff. This new document was prepared with support from the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) on Food Safety: Safer food for better health. It reflects feedback received through consultation process with Member States and governmental institutions, United Nations agencies and other intergovernmental organizations, academia, NGOs, private sector entities, and individuals working in public health and food safety. The vision of the draft strategy is to ensure that all people, everywhere, consume safe and healthy food to reduce the burden of foodborne diseases. With five interlinked and mutually supportive strategic priorities, the draft strategy aims to build forward-looking, evidence-based, people-centred, and cost-effective food safety systems with coordinated governance and adequate infrastructures. This strategy contributes to the achievement of the SDGs and will be reviewed in 2030 when the world will reflect upon the progress made towards the SDGs.

Climate change is causing unprecedented damage to our ecosystem. Increasing temperatures, ocean warming and acidification, severe droughts, wildfires, altered precipitation patterns, melting glaciers, rising sea levels and amplification of extreme weather events have direct implications for our food systems. While the impacts of such environmental factors on food security are well known, the effects on food safety receive less attention. The purpose of Climate change: Unpacking the burden on food safety is to identify and attempt to quantify some current and anticipated food safety issues that are associated with climate change. The food safety hazards considered in the publication are foodborne pathogens and parasites, harmful algal blooms, pesticides, mycotoxins and heavy metals with emphasis on methylmercury. There is also, a dedicated section on the benefits of forward-looking approaches such as horizon scanning and foresight, which will not only aid in anticipating future challenges in a shifting global food safety landscape, but also help build resilient food systems that can be continually updated as more knowledge is assimilated. By building a more widespread and better understanding of the consequences climate change has on food safety, it is hoped that this document will aid in fostering stronger international cooperation in making our food safer by reducing the global burden of these concerns.

Foodborne diseases takes a major toll on health. Thousands of millions of people fall ill and many die as a result of eating unsafe food. Deeply concerned by this a resolution was adopted by WHO and its Member States to recognize fod safety as an essential public health function and to develop a Global Strategy for reducing the burden of foodborne diseases.