With World Food Safety Day coming up on June 7, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have introduced new resources for developing national food safety systems and conducting Codex-aligned risk assessments.

The theme of World Food Safety Day 2026 is “From Burden to Solutions—Safe Food Everywhere,” stressing the role of data and science in guiding action and coinciding with the release of new WHO foodborne disease estimates.

On June 7, celebrating WFSD, Food Safety Magazine will publish a special episode of the Food Safety Matters podcast with Elaine Borghi, Ph.D., Head of WHO’s Monitoring and Surveillance Nutrition and Food Safety Unit, about the forthcoming foodborne disease burden estimates and how data like these can be utilized to improve food safety and public health worldwide. Keep your eyes peeled for the episode in your preferred podcast player or on the Food Safety Magazine website.

WHO Food Safety Roadmap Development Tool

Under a Joint Action Plan between WHO and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore), the NTU Singapore Future Ready Food Safety Hub has developed the WHO Food Safety Roadmap Development Tool.

The Excel-based tool is designed to help countries strengthen national food safety systems through structured analysis and road mapping approaches that support action to address global foodborne disease risks. In alignment with the WHO Global Strategy for Food Safety 2022–2030, it provides a shared vision and framework for strengthening food safety systems globally by offering a standardized platform for national food safety authorities to review progress across the five Strategic Priorities and 21 Strategic Objectives of the strategy.

The WHO Food Safety Roadmap Development Tool will be officially launched during a public World Food Safety Day webinar hosted by WHO on June 3 from 1:00 P.M. to 2:30 P.M. CEST. Register here.

Codex Online Learning Course on Risk Assessment

FAO’s eLearning Academy has launched a new course, “Risk Assessment in the Framework of Codex,” expanding its Effective Participation in Codex Work series. All courses are available free of charge through the FAO eLearning platform. The modular course is free, open-access, self-paced, and offers certificates upon completion.

The Codex e-learning series supports countries and stakeholders in strengthening their understanding of and engagement in the Codex Alimentarius Commission’s global food safety standards-setting work. The courses provide practical guidance on national Codex programs and processes, the value of active participation in regional coordinating committees and discussions, and the role of science and risk analysis in international food standard-setting.

The new course explains the risk analysis framework in Codex and how Codex Members can request, contribute to, and use FAO/WHO scientific advice. It introduces the principles of chemical and microbiological risk assessment for foods, from hazard identification and hazard characterization to exposure assessment and risk characterization. The course’s second part focuses on how scientific advice is generated for different hazard categories: food additives, contaminants and toxins, veterinary drug residues, pesticide residues, and microbiological hazards.

The course is intended for stakeholders involved in the scientific and technical aspects of Codex work at national and international levels, including members of the scientific community, Codex Contact Points, Codex delegates, officials representing industry and consumer interests, and staff of international organizations working in food safety.