The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) has launched a set of guidelines it calls a “toolbox”, which is designed to help businesses operating in the food sector adhere to international food hygiene standards.

The release of these guidelines coincides with World Food Safety Day 2023 tomorrow (Wednesday, June 7).

These guidelines are based on the Codex Alimentarius (Latin for ‘food code’), a collection of wider standards, guidelines and codes of practice managed by the FAO and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The new toolbox – which is available through a website set up by the FAO specifically for it – simplifies the extensive set of guidelines and norms on good hygiene practices (GHP) and hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) management practices.

The FAO has said that “special care” was taken to consider the challenges faced by small food business operators and producers in low and middle class countries.

E.g., the new website is designed to work well on handheld mobile devices, which may be far more widespread than computers in developing countries.

According to the FAO, the aim of this collection of guidelines is to “give all food business operators, whether on the farm or further along the value chain, and regardless of size and location, an instrument that enables them to better engage with local food authorities to produce, process and distribute safe food”.

The toolbox can also be used by others who are indirectly involved in food production, such as government officials and those in academia.

Commenting on the toolbox, Corinna Hawkes, the FAO’s director of food systems and food safety division, described it as “an important point of reference for food safety globally”.

“It provides not only the internationally agreed upon principles of food safety, but also sets a common language, which in turn provides a framework and a commonality within which countries can negotiate and food businesses can communicate on food safety amongst themselves,” Hawkes added.

According to the FAO, there is a direct correlation between situations of food scarcity and increased threats to food safety. Some 600 million people globally are affected by foodborne illnesses every year.

The new toolbox is initially available in English, French and Spanish. It was developed by FAO food safety officers in collaboration with the Department of Food Science at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada.