IAEA, FAO and WHO Unite to Tackle Food Safety and Nutrition

"Unsafe food and poor nutrition are each a problem on their own, but together, they represent a monumental public health crisis," said Najat Mokhtar, IAEA Deputy Director General, opening a landmark technical meeting in Vienna in July. Organized by the IAEA in collaboration with FAO and WHO, the event brought together experts from 14 countries to confront a growing, underexplored challenge: the complex and compounding links between food-borne hazards, food safety and human nutrition.

Although both affect the human body, food-borne hazards and nutrition have long been treated as separate issues. But contaminants like mycotoxins, heavy metals, pesticide residues and microplastics do more than threaten food safety - they also impair growth, gut health, hormone regulation and nutrient absorption. Left unaddressed, these threats can contribute to stunting, chronic diseases and widespread malnutrition.

Across the three-day meeting, discussions focused on how food-borne hazards contaminate the food chain, and how they affect food safety and human health and nutrition outcomes in the short, medium and long term.