FAO and WHO call together more than 300 experts to exchange experiences on how to establish safety in food

Called together by the FAO and the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 300 delegates from 104 countries and 20 international agencies met in Marrakech from 28 to 30 January to exchange information and experiences on how to guarantee safe food on a worldwide scale.

Demographic growth, commerce and international transportation, as well as changes in consumption habits, have, in recent years, caused an alarming expansion in diseases caused by the improper use or state of food. This situation should be approached through reinforced sanitary control and appropriate education on the problem. An effort which, according to the spokesperson for the WHO, "requires the co-ordination of three principal actors: the governments, the food industry and consumers".

The experts that were brought together used the occasion to call for a more effective application of existing consumer-protection guidelines. They also proposed the creation of an international fund to promote, among developing countries, protective sanitary measures for food, as exist in rich countries.