21 October 2026, Iowa: A Dutch food scientist who spent six decades building the scientific case behind modern food safety rules is being honoured this week as the 2026 World Food Prize Laureate, as agriculture and food policy leaders from around the world gather in Des Moines, Iowa, for the annual Borlaug Dialogue, running October 20 to 22.
Huub Lelieveld was named this year’s laureate by the World Food Prize Foundation in March, and he will be formally recognised, along with a $500,000 award, during this week’s event. The World Food Prize is widely regarded as the most prominent global award for individuals who have advanced the quality, quantity or availability of food, and this year’s selection puts food safety science, rather than crop breeding or yield gains, at the centre of the conversation.
Lelieveld began his career as a food researcher at Unilever, where he helped prove out industrial food safety processes before working to make that knowledge available globally rather than keeping it proprietary. In 2004, he founded the Global Harmonization Initiative, a volunteer-driven effort that now connects more than 1,600 food safety experts across over 100 countries. The initiative’s core goal has been to align national food safety regulations so that differing, sometimes contradictory, standards do not become unnecessary barriers to food trade.
A career built on standards, not single discoveries
Unlike many prior laureates recognised for a specific crop variety or farming technique, Lelieveld’s award reflects a career spent building the regulatory and scientific scaffolding that underpins global food trade. According to the World Food Prize Foundation, his work has helped avert millions of cases of foodborne illness and has reduced food waste by advancing hygienic production methods that cut reliance on preservatives. The World Health Organization estimates that foodborne disease causes roughly 420,000 deaths a year worldwide, a toll the Foundation says Lelieveld’s standards-harmonisation work has helped curb.
Gebisa Ejeta, chair of the Laureate selection committee, said Lelieveld was chosen for “translating food safety science into global regulations, legislation and practice,” a description that points to the practical, cross-border nature of his contribution rather than a single scientific breakthrough. Mashal Husain, president of the World Food Prize Foundation, linked his outlook, that access to safe food is a universal right, to the philosophy of the prize’s namesake, the late Dr Norman Borlaug. For his part, Lelieveld has described his approach simply: “I just did what I thought was right,” and has argued that food safety should never be a competitive advantage between companies or countries, saying, “you should not compete on food safety.”
This year’s Borlaug Dialogue also marks the 40th anniversary of the World Food Prize itself, and organisers have built a broader slate of events around the milestone, including discussions on climate resilience, nutrition security and agricultural innovation, alongside the formal laureate ceremony.
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