WHO and FAO Bring Together 352 Participants from More Than 40 Countries to Develop Multisectoral Food Safety Emergency Response Plans

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reported on October 8, 2026, from Cairo, Brazzaville and Accra, on a two-day virtual session dedicated to developing multisectoral food safety emergency response plans. The session was organized by the WHO regional offices for Africa and for the Eastern Mediterranean, the FAO regional offices for Africa and for the Near East and North Africa, the Codex Coordinating Committees for Africa and for the Near East, and the INFOSAN secretariat, the international network of food safety authorities of FAO and WHO.

The organizations' starting point is that food safety is a multisectoral task. When a contaminated food crosses borders or a flood damages crops, stocks and cold chains, identifying what happened is only the first step: those responding need to know whom to call, how to coordinate and who has the authority to act, and they must be able to start actions within hours. The session had 352 participants from more than 40 countries in both regions, which made it possible to compare approaches across countries at different stages: some have already drafted plans and are studying how to test and implement them, while others are still clarifying which institutions should lead or contribute to the response.

The organizers recommend that countries review their current mechanisms, update national contact lists and form multisectoral groups that include public health, food safety, agriculture, veterinary services and laboratories. They also highlight that simulation and tabletop exercises make it possible to detect gaps, clarify responsibilities and maintain operational readiness. They propose realistic scenarios, such as climate events, humanitarian emergencies or supply chain disruptions, to test both national coordination and the international exchange of information through INFOSAN.

For food safety laboratories, the message is practical: plans must be integrated with national food control systems and public health emergency management, and in an emergency the speed of response also depends on having identified the laboratories that can confirm a finding. The news item concerns governance and preparedness; it does not describe an outbreak or a microorganism, so it is not associated with a specific TAAG assay. Nevertheless, it reinforces the importance of rapid detection methods and analytical capacity coordinated with the laboratory network when a contamination event requires decisions within hours.