The World Health Organization is launching the WHO Food Safety Roadmap Development Tool on 3 June 2026 in an online webinar hosted by the Department of Nutrition and Food Safety. The tool was developed by WHO in collaboration with the International Finance Corporation and supported by Nanyang Technological University Singapore.
Its purpose is simple and practical: help national authorities turn the WHO global strategy for food safety 2022–2030 into country-specific action plans, or roadmaps, that can strengthen national food safety systems and improve public health outcomes.
What is the WHO Food Safety Roadmap Development Tool?
The WHO Food Safety Roadmap Development Tool is a structured planning tool that helps countries assess where they stand on food safety and decide what to do next.
According to WHO, it is designed to support Member States in analyzing their current food safety systems, identifying priority areas, and building coordinated, evidence-informed national roadmaps. In plain terms, it is a guide for turning the broad goals of the WHO global strategy for food safety 2022–2030 into practical national action.
This matters because food safety is not just a technical issue for one ministry or one agency. WHO says it requires a multisectoral, One Health approach across the food chain, with shared responsibility among national authorities. The new roadmap tool is meant to support exactly that kind of joined-up planning.
Why did WHO launch this tool in 2026?
WHO says the launch is part of its ongoing work to strengthen global food safety systems and support countries in achieving measurable public health impact. The event also connects directly to World Food Safety Day 2026, which gives the launch a timely policy and public-health context. WHO’s event page says the webinar will present the tool, share practical applications, and highlight country experiences.
The broader policy background comes from the Seventy-fifth World Health Assembly, which adopted the updated WHO global strategy for food safety 2022–2030 and called on Member States to develop national implementation roadmaps or reflect those actions in existing food safety policies and programmes.
WHO also notes that countries were asked to make financial resources available for this work. The launch of the WHO Food Safety Roadmap Development Tool is therefore not a standalone event; it is an implementation step in a wider WHO food safety roadmap process.
How does the tool help countries build a food safety roadmap?
The most important function of the WHO Food Safety Roadmap Development Tool is assessment. WHO says the tool contains 123 questions that help countries analyze their current level of implementation across the strategic objectives of the global strategy. Each question is linked to a specific strategic objective and comes with five standardized levels of achievement, which makes it easier to compare progress in a consistent way. WHO also says the tool includes a maturity model to help interpret implementation levels.
That design is important because countries often know they have food safety gaps, but they may not have a shared framework for measuring them. The tool gives governments a way to review current food safety capacities and priorities, identify areas that need more action or investment, and define practical steps to strengthen national food safety systems.
In other words, the WHO Food Safety Roadmap Development Tool is not only about diagnosis; it is also about planning the response.
WHO also says the tool is meant to support a collaborative national process involving all relevant competent authorities. Countries are encouraged to complete it collectively across sectors and agree on a single national-level response rather than separate institutional views. That makes the roadmap more likely to reflect the real situation inside a country and more useful as a policy document.
What makes the WHO food safety roadmap approach practical?
The WHO page makes clear that the tool is built for action, not just reporting. Where activities are not fully implemented, users can identify technical gaps, limitations, and priority areas that need strengthening. WHO also says the tool includes supporting materials, such as references to related guidance documents and a glossary of key definitions.
That matters because clear definitions reduce confusion and improve consistency when multiple agencies are working on the same national food safety roadmap.
The tool also helps countries align national work with the WHO global strategy for food safety 2022–2030, which WHO describes as a framework with five interlinked and mutually supportive strategic priorities. WHO’s strategy aims to build forward-looking, evidence-based, people-centred, and cost-effective food safety systems with coordinated governance and adequate infrastructure.
That is the real value of the WHO Food Safety Roadmap Development Tool: it turns a high-level strategy into an operating plan. For governments, that means less guesswork and more structured decision-making. For public-health systems, it means a better chance of identifying weak points before they become outbreaks or recurring foodborne disease problems.
Why does this matter for foodborne diseases and public health?
WHO says foodborne diseases are a major global health burden, with over 200 diseases caused by food contaminated with bacteria, viruses, parasites, or chemical substances. WHO also says unsafe food contributes to serious health, socioeconomic, and trade impacts, including strain on health-care systems and lost productivity.
The agency’s food safety work is therefore not only about food quality; it is about preventing illness and protecting health at scale.
WHO’s food safety fact sheet also says unsafe food poses public-health threats that require national food control systems capable of prevention, detection, and response. The roadmap tool fits this mission because it helps countries examine whether those systems are working, where the gaps are, and what actions are needed to improve them.
The broader WHO food safety agenda is built around the idea that safer food is a public-health investment. WHO’s global strategy aims to ensure that all people, everywhere, consume safe and healthy food so the burden of foodborne diseases is reduced. The WHO Food Safety Roadmap Development Tool is the mechanism that helps convert that vision into country-level decisions, budgets, and implementation plans.
What should national authorities do next?
WHO says national authorities interested in using the roadmap development tool can contact the WHO Secretariat at fos-alliance@who.int for further information and support. The key next step is not simply to read the tool, but to use it collaboratively across the agencies involved in food safety so the result is a shared national roadmap, not a fragmented document.
For governments, the message is clear. The WHO Food Safety Roadmap Development Tool is meant to help countries review current capacity, identify priorities, strengthen coordination, and align with the WHO global strategy for food safety 2022–2030.
For public-health systems, it offers a practical path from assessment to implementation. And for food safety policy, it gives countries a cleaner way to move from general commitment to measurable action.
Conclusion
The launch of the WHO Food Safety Roadmap Development Tool is a practical step in WHO’s wider food safety agenda. It gives countries a structured way to assess where they stand, identify what is missing, and build a country-specific food safety roadmap aligned with the WHO global strategy for food safety 2022–2030.
In a field where clear definitions, coordination, and implementation matter, the tool is designed to make national action more focused, more comparable, and more useful for protecting public health.
