The WHO Collaborating Centre (CC) on Chemical Food Safety in Bilthoven, Netherlands (Kingdom of the), is set to continue strengthening chemical food-safety risk-assessment capacity in Europe and beyond, after being redesignated as a WHO CC until May 2027.
The Chemical Food Safety Department at the Centre for Prevention, Lifestyle and Health at the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) promotes expanding expertise across the WHO European Region to improve risk assessment of contaminants and toxins in food sources. Pursuing its goals based on independent scientific research, it works towards a healthy population living in a sustainable, safe and healthy environment.
RIVM responds upon request or acts under the leadership of the WHO to:
- improve the Global Environment Monitoring System and the Chronic Individual Food Consumption summary statistics databases;
- support improving risk-assessment methods used by WHO for food risk assessment by the joint Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives and Joint Meeting on Pesticide Residues; and
- support the use of Total Diet Studies for food-safety risk assessment at international level.
“Chemical food safety is an increasing concern for the WHO European Region and globally, and the technical and scientific contribution of Collaborating Centres to WHO’s work is of utmost importance. The longstanding collaboration between WHO and RIVM has contributed to increased chemical food-safety risk-assessment capacity in the WHO European region,” explained Peter Sousa Hoejskov, a technical officer at WHO Europe.
About the Collaborating Centre
In 2022, the CC provided two courses on benchmark dose (BMD) analyses for experts on two scientific committees: the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives and the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Meetings on Microbiological Risk Assessment. Participants learned how to perform BMD analyses, including interpretation of the results obtained, to assist them in conducting risk assessments of chemicals, including contaminants, toxicants and (residues of) pesticides and veterinary drugs in food.
“Via our status as a WHO CC, we contribute to improving the calculation of the intake of food chemicals and of the derivation of safe intake levels of these chemicals, resulting in more realistic risk assessments at the international level. As a result of this collaboration, we are able to play a role in improving the health and well-being of people around the world,” said Dr Polly Boon, Head of the CC on Chemical Food Safety.