At Seventy-third World Health Assembly, WHO was tasked by Member States to update the WHO Global Strategy for Food Safety under the resolution WHA73.5, ‘‘Strengthening efforts on food safety’’. To advance this work, WHO convened the first Technical Advisory Group (TAG) meeting on the update of WHO Global Strategy for Food Safety from 8 to 10 February 2021. The meeting was attended by WHO Multisectoral Actions in Food Systems (AFS) headquarters staff, WHO regional advisors for food safety, 24 TAG members, and staff from the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) as observers. The overall objective of the first TAG meeting was to collect experts’ advice on the consultation paper developed for discussion on this meeting and the update process of the WHO Global Strategy for Food Safety. This meeting generally agreed on the role of food safety in the global development agenda, the drivers of change for the future of food safety, the aim and the vision, and the proposed five strategic priorities. The meeting highlighted the need to foster global and regional cooperation. While recognizing the strategy should be Member State oriented, it was agreed to enhance WHO’s leadership and give more visibility to WHO’s role in supporting Member States to strengthen food safety and lower the burden of foodborne disease.

The second Technical Advisory Group (TAG) meeting on the update of the WHO Global Strategy for Food Safety was held virtually on 19, 22 to 23 April 2021. The meeting was attended by WHO headquarters staff from the Department of Nutrition and Food Safety, WHO regional advisors for food safety and 23 TAG members. Staff from the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the Codex Secretariat joined the meeting as observers. The overall objective of the second TAG meeting was to review the first draft of the WHO Global Strategy Food Safety prepared by the WHO Secretariat based on the discussion from the first TAG meeting and comments received from TAG members, and to finalize the draft for public consultation. The second TAG meeting agreed on the overall structure and content of the draft strategy. This meeting noted the importance to highlight technical cooperation and knowledge sharing among countries for the implementation of the strategy and it was agreed to establish global food safety indicators and targets for the strategy to enhance its accountability.

The WHO Technical Advisory Group on NCD-related Research and Innovation (TAG-NCD R&I) was established in July 2021, consisting of twelve experts from the field of NCD research. The second virtual meeting of the TAG-NCD R&I took place on 16 and 17 November 2022. This report details the discussions and recommendations from this two-day meeting.