Listening Session for PPP to Improve Food Safety Capacity Building
Virtual, Event
June 15, 2021
3:00 pm – 5:00 pm
UMD-JIFSAN, IAFNS, and Structured Partnerships invite you to join us for a listening session as we look to establish a new Public-Private Partnership focused on Data Sharing to Improve Food Safety Capacity Building.
The goal of this first listening session is to present and receive comments on the proposed Public-Private Partnership outlined in the White Paper: https://bit.ly/3gRzYOo.
Food safety is a global public good and fundamental for all societies. Foodborne diseases (FBDs), caused by ingesting contaminated food, is a significant source of morbidity and mortality around the world. As food supply networks become more globalized, food safety practices impact more than those producing and processing the products. Whole food industries are vulnerable, as are affected populations. Food safety capacity building efforts can improve global societal welfare.
To know if such capacity building efforts are working, the impact of these efforts needs to be documented and examined. Assessing such impact can help justify and galvanize future efforts or shift the focus to new or improved methods. These assessments need to be based on direct data, which needs to be shared for maximum understanding and utility.
Out of shared interest, this listening session brings representatives from the public and private sectors together to consider how to build a data sharing platform. The goal of this platform is for stakeholders (government, industry, the scientific community, and others) to agree on what data is needed to measure impact, to determine what data is already being collected, and to work toward greater data sharing and understanding. Recognizing that some of this data is proprietary and sensitive, one of the main goals of this PPP is to find shared ways to alleviate those concerns. If successful, this PPP is expected to both help government fulfill its mandate to improve food safety for the public good and enable companies providing food into the U.S. food chain to meet their obligations under FSMA more effectively, while also protecting these businesses from food shocks caused by FBD events. For other countries and donors, lessons learned will aid them in shaping their own investments in food safety capacity efforts.
Prior discussions among stakeholders have shown significant support for the formation of a PPP to share data that can help those involved improve the impact of food safety capacity building. They recognize that this can in turn improve productivity, reduce FBDs, and ultimately improve public health.
As we move toward establishing a PPP with key stakeholders and other interested participants, please join us in this first listening session to give your input! This listening session is also part of the UN Food System Summit 2021 Dialogue.