The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the European Centres for Disease Control and Prevention Division of Foodborne and Environmental Disease (CDC DFWED) are going to create WHO Alliance for food safety to meet foodborne disease surveillance targets.

The first meeting is scheduled for the 6th - 8th of May 2024 which will be held in Geneva, Switzerland and virtually.

The WHO Global Strategy for Food Safety 2022-2030 highlights five priorities to advance food safety, accomplish surveillance targets and pursue progress toward reducing foodborne illnesses worldwide.

One of the goals is to increase the global capacity for surveillance of foodborne diseases and contamination from a score of 1.5 in 2022 to 3.5 by 2030 (based on the International Health Regulations Joint External Evaluation Tool). 

As a means of increasing cross-country collaboration, WHO and CDC DFWED are looking to re-establish the WHO’s Global Foodborne Infections Network (GFN) and join its network of collaborating centres to serve as the basis of the WHO Alliance for Food Safety. 

In 2001-2015 GFN strengthened the capacity of organisations and individuals who worked in veterinary, food, and public health industries and aimed to increase countries’ capacity to detect, control and prevent foodborne and other enteric infections.

The Alliance aims to combine efforts from more than 20 World Health Organisation Collaborating Centres, recognising the need to better align their activities with the goals of the WHO Global Strategy for Food Safety.