G/SPS/GEN/1405  
 
31 March 2015  
(15-1775)  Page: 1/2  
Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures  Original: English  
 
 FAO SUBMISSION ON FOOD SAFETY RISK ANALYSIS 
MEETING OF 25-27 MARCH 2015 
The following communication, received on 25 March 2015, is being circulated at the request of the 
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). 
 
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 1.  FAO has taken note of the document submitted by the United States of America on "Risk Assessment: Possible Steps for consideration"  (G/SPS/GEN/1401) and in particular the 
encouragement at the end of the paper for the SPS Committee to collaborate with the international 
bodies working in the area of risk assessmen t, notably FAO, WHO, Codex, OIE and IPPC. 
2.  To facilitate this, FAO would like to take the opportunity to provide some additional information 
on some of its work in the area of SPS capacity development, especially in the area of food safety 
risk analysis. 
a. FAO is very aware of the need to improve sh aring of information on risk assessments. In 
recent years, FAO has been very active in  the development of the GM-Foods platform, 
which is a simple online platform to share information on safety assessment of foods derived from recombinant-DNA plants authorized in accordance with the relevant Codex guidelines.  
FAO is actively encouraging and working with countries to share their assessment 
information in this area, and has gained important experiences in the challenges and benefits of promoting greater information sharing. While FAO's current engagement is in 
the area of GM Foods, if there was a strong  interest in expanding the scope of such a 
platform to cover other food safety relate d risk assessments, this is something FAO 
would be willing to consider.  
b. In the area of development of capacities at country level, FAO recognizes that there are 
many modalities possible depending on existing levels of capacity and that it is important to match these to the needs of each  individual country. FAO, together with 
other partners (such as the WHO), has an ongoing program of work in the area of food 
safety risk analysis. In this context, all the risk assessments developed at international 
level are made publicly available for countries to use as appropriate to their situation. More recently, some hazard specific risk assessment tools have been developed to 
facilitate up-take of risk assessment at national level. An example is a tool to assess key 
foodborne pathogens (such as Salmonella  in poultry). Training and capacity development 
aimed at enabling countries to implement the risk analysis framework is included in most 
FAO food safety projects where there is the opportunity to tailor the capacity 
development approaches to the individual country's needs. These approaches often include mentoring efforts. 
c. On the point of risk communication, FAO, in collaboration with WHO, has recently 
developed a handbook and training resource on "Risk communication applicable to food 
safety" (currently available in English, French and Spanish). This handbook serves as both a training tool and a resource for food safety risk communication. In the last year, 
successful pilot testing and training has been implemented in Europe/Central Asia and in 
Africa with further events planned for the coming year. In this regard, FAO is working with EFSA to implement further training in the European region. G/SPS/GEN/1405 
 
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  3.  Through the STDF and other partnerships , FAO continues to work to promote better 
coordination of food safety capacity development efforts – including the area of food safety risk 
analysis. FAO is keen to be involved in any discussions on strengthening countries capacities in risk analysis to ensure that approaches are as streamlined as possible to maximize efficiency and 
impact. 
Additional information: 4.  FAO GM-Foods platform can be accessed on http://www.fao.org/food/food-safety-quality/gm-
foods-platform/en/ . 
5.  FAO undertakes food safety risk assessments together with WHO on chemical, microbiological 
as well as on emerging and cross cutting food safety issues. Details of the scientific advice programme and the key expert committees, notably the Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives 
– JECFA (covering food additives, contaminan ts and veterinary drugs in food) and JEMRA 
(microbiological hazards in foods) can be found on http://www.fao.org/food/food-safety-
quality/scientific-advice/en/ . 
6.  Some of the recent tools which have been developed to support risk assessment and risk 
management, including the development of microbiological criteria and the sampling plans for mycotoxins, can be found on http://www.fstools.org/ . 
7.  The risk communication material is currently in press and will be publicly available within the 
next months. 
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