Food safety

Prevention of foodborne disease: Five keys to safer food

Implementation in countries of the five keys to safer food

WHO aims to improve the exchange and reapplication of practical food safety knowledge in and between Member States. Countries can highly benefit by exchanging experiences and tested solutions with each other. This section will enable countries and partners to have access to the different tools produced in different parts of the world to deliver the Five Keys messages.

We would appreciate receiving any available documentation on Five Keys projects to facilitate further sharing of knowledge.

COUNTRY MATERIAL AND ACTIVITIES
(Countries are sorted by the 6 WHO regions)

Regional Office for Africa

Angola
Botswana
Cameroon

Activities recently initiated: Training of food vendors (No documentation)

Comoros
Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Gambia
Guinea
Lesotho
Malawi

Activities recently initiated: Training of food vendors (No documentation)

Mali
Mauritania

Activities initiated: School food safety campaigns (No documentation)

Mozambique
Rwanda
South Africa
Togo

Activities recently initiated: Promotion of food safety in schools in the millennium villages (No documentation)

Uganda

Activities recently initiated: adaptation of the poster and training (No documentation)

Zimbabwe


Regional Office for the Americas

Antigua and Barbuda

Antigua and Barbuda has been using the Five Keys To Safer Food developed by WHO/PAHO since 2007 for the training of Foodhandlers. To date, they have trained some 4000 foodhandlers.
- Update [pdf 10kb]
- Adaptation of the poster for use in Antigua and Barbuda [pdf 835kb]

Argentina

Several municipalities of Argentina integrated the Five Keys to Safer Food into their training for food handlers. As an example, the Food Safety Agency of the Santa Fe province is currently developing a course which will be mandatory for all food handlers (no documentation)

Belize
Bolivia

Bolivia used the Five Keys to train food handlers in the context of Healthy Food Markets and training in schools (No documentation)

Brazil
Cuba
Dominican Republic

The Five Keys have been used in the context of Healthy Markets and projects to use the Five Keys in school settings are being considered (No documentation)

El Salvador
Guatemala
Haiti

The Five Keys were used in Haiti and a creole version of the poster was produced (to be posted when available)

Honduras
Mexico

The Ministry of Health is working on the reproduction of the Five Keys poster to make a prevention campaign in Mexico City.

Paraguay
Uruguay

The Five Keys to Safer Food training was used to encourage tourism by decreasing foodborne disease in Maldonado, Uruguay. The core course w as mandatory for all commercial food handlers in Maldonado who were required to pass a test at the end of the course. Approximately 12 000 persons successfully completed the course. Evaluation of the programme showed that the training not only improved the knowledge and behaviour of the food handlers but resulted in a significant decrease in foodborne disease (no documentation)

Each year, Uruguay organizes a food safety day based on the Five Keys message.

A Five Keys to Safer Food training was used to encourage tourism by decreasing foodborne disease in Maldonado.

Venezuela


Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean

The WHO Regional Office for the Region of the Eastern Mediterranean printed 500 000 copies of the Five keys posters and 100 000 copies of stickers intended to primary schools and kindergartens in the region. During the months of Ramadan, the Five Keys have been distributed to schools, mosques, restaurants, food manufacturing and food industries.

Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Syrian Arab Republic translated the Five Keys poster into local languages.

Bahrain, Kuwait, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Morocco, Qatar, Sudan, United Arab Emirates and Yemen have done small orientation training activities on the Five Keys.

Egypt
Iran (Islamic Republic of)

Iran translated the Five Keys to Safer Food Manual and introduced the Five Keys in Community Health workers training programme (No documentation)

Tunisia


Regional Office for Europe

Albania
Austria
Belgium

Ministry of Health is preparing a health promotion campaign using the Five Keys in English, French and Dutch (No documentation)

Bosnia
Bulgaria

Poster was used to teach preventive measures to schools children, to teach post-graduade training courses in food safety (No documentation)

Croatia

April 2009: Croatia lauches a food safety campaign for tourism using the Guide on Safe Food for travellers (no documentation)
Food safety promotion in schools using the WHO five keys to safer foodZagreb, Croatia, 13 November 2008(no documentation)

Czech Republic
Estonia
France

Ministry of Health, Direction generale de la sante, is preparing a guide for safe food handling for consumers (No documentation)

Greece
Kazakhstan

The Poster was translated into Kazak and used to train professional food handlers of schools and kindergartens of the South Kazakhstan regions (No documentation)

Macedonia

The poster, manual and leaflet were translated into Macedonian and used in food safety campaigns (No dcumentation for the manual or leaflet)

Malta
Portugal

The National Health Institute (Dr Ricardo Jorge) took the initiative to translate the Five Keys to Safer Food Manual into Portuguese and disseminated the Five Keys message in international congresses and to all the community of countries of Portuguese language.

Spain

The Catalan Food Safety Agency adapted the Five Keys and designed designed food safety educational material consisting in a brochure, a DVD and a poster. As the supply of safe drinking water and food are guaranteed in Spain, the 5 keys have been reduced to four.
- Brochure
- Video clip

Tajikistan

December 2008 Tajikistan launches a Five Keys to Safer Food initiative (no documenation)

Turkmenistan
Uzbekistan


Regional Office for South-East Asia

The WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia has translated the Five Keys poster into the 13 languages widely spoken in the region and a guidance booklet on how to adapt the Five Keys to local conditions was prepared (First adapt, then act!). Following the tsunami, the posters and training manuals were distributed widely throughout the affected countries. These materials were used in emergency refugee camps, marketplaces, health care facilities and schools; and helped prevent the secondary outbreak of disease which is often associated with poor sanitation and overcrowding.

Bangladesh
Timor-Leste


Regional Office for the Western Pacific

Cambodia
China
China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

The Government of Hong Kong SAR, Center for Food Safety, in 2008 launched a campaign to promote the Five Keys to Safer Food: http://www.cfs.gov.hk/eindex.html

The Food Safety Charter 2009 by which food traders can sign a charter engaging them to promote the five keys to the public and apply them themselves in their premises: http://www.cfs.gov.hk/english/whatsnew/whatsnew_fstr/whatsnew_fstr_food_safety_charter.html

A large-scale survey about the public's knowledge and use of the Five Keys was undertaken: http://www.cfs.gov.hk/english/programme/programme_nifl/files/NL_survey_result_executive_summary_e.pdf

As part of the campaign, a number of adapted and localized materials have been developed: http://www.cfs.gov.hk/english/whatsnew/whatsnew_fstr/whatsnew_fstr_food_safety_charter_Publicity_Materials.html

A leaflet was developed for consumers: http://www.cfs.gov.hk/english/multimedia/multimedia_pub/files/5keys_bk_Public_E.pdf

Guam
Japan
Lao People's Democratic Republic
Malaysia
Northern Mariana Islands
Palau
Papua New Guinea
Republic of Korea
Singapore
Solomon Islands
Viet Nam
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In this section

  1. The five keys to safer food
  2. Dissemination of the five keys to safer food
  3. Implementation in countries of the five keys to safer food

FEATURED COUNTRY OF THE MONTH

Hong Kong SAR

For information about the WHO requirements to reproduce or translate the poster or for potential collaborations please contact Françoise Fontannaz: fontannazf@who.int

For regional food safety contacts please go to our Contact us page