Report of the first meeting of the Technical advisory group on food safety: safer food for better health, virtual meeting, 8–10 February 2021
Overview
The first Technical Advisory Group (TAG) meeting on the update of the WHO Global Strategy for Food Safety was held on 8–10 February 2021, from 12:00– 15:00 CET each day. The meeting was attended by WHO Multisectoral Actions in Food Systems (AFS) headquarters staff, WHO Regional Advisors for Food Safety, 24 TAG members, and staff from the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) as observers.
The overall objective of the first TAG meeting was to collect experts’ advice on the discussion paper on the update process of the WHO Global Strategy for Food Safety developed for this meeting.
The TAG meeting participants agreed on the role of food safety in the global development agenda, the drivers of change for the future of food safety, the aim and the vision, and the proposed five strategic priorities. The meeting highlighted the need to foster global and regional cooperation. While recognizing the strategy should be Member State oriented, it was agreed to enhance WHO’s leadership and give more visibility to WHO’s role in supporting Member States to strengthen food safety and lower the burden of foodborne disease.
The consultation recommended the WHO Secretariat:
- Draft WHO Global Strategy for Food Safety in line with the comments and inputs provided during the consultation and the written comments received by 15 February.
- Organize a follow-up meeting to address the unfinished agenda on the implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and the draft strategy.
