IPPC contributes to the European Food and Safety Authority meeting on climate change and emerging risks for food safety

Participants of the CLEFSA meeting held in EFSA Headquarter, Parma, Italy, 12-13 March 2018. © EFSA, 2018

The European and Food Safety Authority (EFSA) runs an innovative international initiative to discuss emerging issues for food and feed safety in the EU influenced by climate change. The emerging issues considered within this project encompass the following disciplines and topics: plant health, animal health, contaminants, biological hazards for human health, nutrition, pesticides, GMOs and feed and food ingredients and packaging. Participants from the various EFSA units and Scientific Committee Standing Working Groups as well as from international organizations are part of the discussion group and include EuroCigua project, the Joint Research Center (JRC), The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Office International des Epizooties (OIE), the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Global Harmful Algal Bloom (GlobalHAB) and the University of Florence.

Ms Sarah Brunel, Implementation Officer, attended this meeting and contributed information on the general plant protection international background, on the IPPC Secretariat standards and implementation activities and on the concepts of pest risk analysis. By 2019, the CLEFSA initiative shall produce a frame and a mechanism to monitor emerging issues for food and feed safety influenced by climate change.