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Food Safety
The Department of Food Safety, Zoonoses and Foodborne Diseases (FOS) strives to reduce the serious negative impact of foodborne diseases worldwide. Food and waterborne diarrhoeal diseases are leading causes of illness and death in less developed countries, killing approximately 1.8 million people annually, most of whom are children.
Recent trends in global food production, processing, distribution and preparation are creating an increasing demand for food safety research in order to ensure a safer global food supply. FOS works with other WHO departments, Regional Offices and WHO collaborating centres as well as other international and national agencies. In particular, WHO works closely with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to address food safety issues along the entire food production chain--from production to consumption--using new methods of risk analysis. These methods provide efficient, science-based tools to improve food safety, thereby benefiting both public health and economic development. FOS endeavours to help all WHO Member States, both developing and developed, through the approaches outlined in the WHO Global Strategy for Food Safety.
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