23 May 2026, Rome: As we gear up for this year’s celebrations, the World Food Safety Day team has put together a “Programme of events” outlining the different activities being organized by FAO, WHO and Codex to expand on the 2026 theme “From burden to solutions – safe food everywhere”. The programme is posted on the homepage of the World Food Safety Day website.
World Food Safety Day this year is led by WHO and focuses on the release of the updated WHO estimates of the global burden of foodborne disease produced under the guidance of the Technical Advisory Group, the Foodborne Disease Burden Epidemiology Reference Group (FERG). WHO will release the data online and in a dedicated webinar on 4 June at 11:30 CEST. You can join this event to learn about the data that is being released, the top food safety hazards globally and regionally, and hear experts talk about the implications of these WHO findings.
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On the same day, FAO will publish an episode of their podcast series, “The work we do”, which was recorded with the Secretary of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, Sarah Cahill. The Codex Secretary talks with the podcast host, Kathrin Park, about the work of Codex and why it is so relevant to this year’s World Food Safety Day theme, and, in particular, how Codex texts support solutions to the burden of foodborne disease. The FAO feature story titled “The Inspector at the border: Assessing risks to deliver food safety in the Comoros”, will also be released. The story focuses on FAO work in Comoros to build capacity and strengthen the country’s food control systems.
World Food Safety Day itself will see the publication of a “Codex in Action” story that outlines how Codex texts support countries to tackle the burden of foodborne disease. The story shows that Codex texts are available for the top food safety hazards. “What this tells us,” says Sarah Cahill in the story, “is that the Codex Alimentarius Commission is very much ‘reading the room’ in terms of the direction our work needs to be going in.”
There will additionally be an FAO-organized webinar on 10 June titled “Using Risk Categorization to Improve Food Inspection Programmes”, where experts will introduceFAO’s Risk-based Inspection Resource Kit.
WHO is also organizing a series of virtual talks to offer a “deep dive” on some of the salient topics in the new WHO estimates. The talks will take place throughout June. Keep checking the World Food Safety Day events pages for the details as they are made available.
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