Safe food protects our lives.
It is the foundation of health, well-being, and development. We must continue to work conscientiously and responsibly to strengthen food safety systems and ensure safe food for everyone!
World Food Safety Day reminds us that food safety does not begin in the kitchen—it lies at the heart of the One Health approach: the shared space where human, animal, and environmental health intersect, and where many of today’s health risks emerge.
From Salmonella and Campylobacter to antimicrobial resistance and chemical contaminants, foodborne threats are often shaped by what happens across the entire system: on farms, in slaughterhouses and processing facilities, in water and soil, throughout supply chains, and in the way we detect and respond to outbreaks. That is why prevention and preparedness depend on how effectively we connect sectors and, crucially, how well we equip the people working within them.
The One Health approach is only as strong as the system that supports it and the workforce that delivers it. Strengthening workforce capacity means clarifying roles, building competencies, and ensuring that professionals can collaborate seamlessly—before an incident occurs, not only during a crisis.
Food safety and One Health rely on a wide range of professionals, including:
• Public Health: epidemiologists, surveillance officers, risk communicators, laboratory professionals, and emergency preparedness and response teams
• Animal Health: veterinarians, epidemiologists, inspectors, and animal production specialists
• Environment: environmental officers, water and sanitation experts, ecotoxicologists, and waste and wastewater specialists
• Food Safety Managers and Regulators: food inspectors, food microbiologists, quality and food safety managers, risk assessors, and policy-makers
Building this capacity requires technical expertise, interoperable systems, shared competencies, common protocols, and trusted relationships that enable rapid information sharing and coordinated decision-making.
That is why WHO/Europe, together with the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), supports countries in strengthening multidisciplinary workforce development for One Health—most recently through a regional workshop held in Chișinău, Republic of Moldova (22–24 April 2026), funded by the European Union under the EU4Health cross-border action.
On World Food Safety Day, let us hear from some of the people who prevent, detect, and respond to threats at the human-animal-environment interface. Food safety is One Health in action—and a resilient workforce is our best protection.