Foodborne disease and food contamination constitute a growing public healthconcern. WHO estimates that globally foodborne and waterborne diarrhoeal diseases cause the deaths of about 2.2 million people annually, 1.9 million of them children. In addition, chemical contamination causes a significant amount of foodborne disease.
During the Regional Committee meeting in 2011, health representatives from the Western Pacific Region endorsed the Western Pacific Regional Food Safety Strategy 2011-2015 and urged Member States to use the Strategy as a framework for the strengthening of national food control systems to effectively protect public health, prevent fraud, avoid food adulteration and facilitate safe and healthy food.
In addition to providing a national framework, the strategy defines the work of the food safety programme in the WHO Western Pacific Region for the next five years.
Western Pacific Regional Food Safety Strategy 2011-2015
As agenda item 12, during the 62nd session of the Regional Committee Meeting, 2011
— English
— Français
— 中文
The strategy is made up of the following 7 themes:
— Improved food control and coordination throughout the food chain continuum and adequate funding
— Risk-based regulatory frameworks
— Improved availability of food safety data to better guide policy and risk analysis
— Inspection services
— Food safety training and education
— Capacity to detect, assess and manage food safety incidents and emergencies
— Enhanced cooperative planning
Seven strategy themes
-
Improved food control and coordination throughout the food chain continuum and adequate funding
-
Risk-based regulatory frameworks
-
Improved availability of food safety data to better guide policy and risk analysis
-
Inspection services
-
Food safety training and education
-
Capacity to detect, assess and manage food safety incidents and emergencies
-
Enhanced cooperative planning
Documents and publications
Regional news
-
Working with Asian countries to improve information-sharing in food safety emergencies
26 November 2012 -
Fiji flood emergency: WHO advises public to prevent diseases
3 April 2012 -
Putting food safety on the table
13 October 2011 -
New FAQs on food safety now online
23 March 2011 -
UNICEF and WHO China statement on contaminated infant formula
28 September 2008