Webinar: Ranking food safety risks at the national level

Background

WHO is updating the burden estimates of foodborne diseases at the national, regional, and global level for its planned release in 2025. This webinar aims to describe key components of risk analysis, focusing on risk ranking, and how health metrics, such as estimated incidence, deaths, and disease burden, can be applied as a tool for national risk ranking exercise.

Risk ranking is defined as “the systematic analysis and ordering of foodborne hazards and/or foods in terms of the public health risks based on the likelihood and severity of adverse impacts on human health in a target population” (FAO, 2020). “National food safety authorities must deal with numerous food safety issues, often simultaneously. Resources inevitably are insufficient to manage all issues at any given time and ranking of issues in priority for risk management, as well as ranking risks for assessment, are important activities for food safety regulators.” (FAO/WHO, 2006).

The session is organized on the occasion of celebrating World Food Safety Day 2024. See more details here.

Moderator

Dr Moez Sanaa, Unit Head, Standards and Scientific Advice (SSA) unit, Department of Nutrition and Food Safety (NFS)

Speakers

• Dr Sarah Cahill, Senior Food Standards Officer, Secretariat of the Codex Alimentarius Commission
• Dr Kang Zhou, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
• Dr Arie Havelaar, Professor, Microbial Risk Assessment and Epidemiology of Foodborne Diseases, University of Florida
• Mr Wendafrash Abera, Technical Advisor, Ethiopian Food and Drug Authority

Agenda

13:00 – 13:05     Welcome and introduction - Dr Moez Sanaa 

13:05 – 13:15     The role of risk ranking in risk analysis - Dr Sarah Cahill

13:15 – 13:30     Introduction to the FAO guide to ranking food safety risks at the national level – Dr Kang Zhou

13:30 – 13:45     Application of the WHO estimates of the burden of foodborne diseases in risk ranking at the national level – Dr Arie Havelaar

13:45 – 13:55     Overview of food safety and foodborne disease surveillance in Ethiopia - Mr Wendafrash Abera

13:55 – 14:10     Questions and Answers 

Organizer

Monitoring and Surveillance Nutrition and Food Safety (MNF) Unit, Department of Nutrition and Food Safety

Reference

1. FAO. 2020. FAO guide to ranking food safety risks at the national level. Food Safety and Quality Series No 10. Rome. https://doi.org/10.4060/cb0887en
2. FAO and WHO. 2006. Food safety risk analysis: a guide for national food safety authorities. FAO Food and Nutrition Paper No. 87. Rome, FAO.