Timely detection and effective response to foodborne diseases are essential to protect public health and prevent local events from escalating into wider emergencies. To support countries in strengthening these capacities, the World Health Organization has released updated editions of its full set of manuals on strengthening surveillance of and response to foodborne diseases.
The updated manuals provide practical, structured guidance for building, assessing, and strengthening national foodborne disease surveillance and response systems. Together, they form a coherent package that supports countries at different stages of development, from establishing foundational surveillance functions to advancing integrated surveillance across the food chain.
A coherent framework for strengthening national systems
The manuals introduce a three-stage framework that guides countries in developing surveillance and response systems that are fit for purpose, sustainable, and aligned with international expectations. The framework supports progressive system strengthening, starting with core detection and response capacities and advancing toward the integration of data across public health, food safety, laboratory, animal health, and environmental sectors.
Across all stages, the manuals emphasize clear roles and responsibilities, multisectoral collaboration, and the use of surveillance data to inform timely risk assessment, response, and prevention activities.
Practical guidance for action
Each manual includes practical tools that national authorities can use to assess current capacities, identify gaps, and plan priority actions. These include self-assessment instruments, decision trees, templates, field investigation tools, and case studies drawn from real-world experience.
The updated editions place greater emphasis on equity, data use, and the linkage between foodborne disease surveillance and food contamination monitoring. They also reflect emerging priorities, including the growing influence of climate and environmental factors on foodborne risks and the need for adaptable surveillance systems that can respond to changing contexts.
Supporting data-driven decision-making
Stronger surveillance and response systems improve the quality, timeliness, and use of data for public health decision making, supporting earlier detection of events, more reliable risk assessments, effective outbreak investigations, and the translation of evidence into prevention and control measures.
The updated manuals are designed to work alongside existing World Health Organization guidance on specific tools and approaches for foodborne disease surveillance and response, including whole genome sequencing as a tool to strengthen foodborne disease surveillance and response . Such tools can add value at different points along the surveillance pathway, particularly as systems mature. The manuals emphasize that advanced methods are most effective when built on strong foundational capacities, and provide the system-level framework within which countries can consider, adopt, and sustainably integrate approaches such as genomic sequencing in line with their context, priorities, and readiness.
For countries working to strengthen their foodborne disease surveillance systems, the updated manuals provide tools to develop a practical roadmap for action, supporting national efforts to reduce the burden of foodborne diseases and protect population health.
"These updated manuals reflect the strong collaboration, collective work, and shared expertise of members of the WHO Alliance for Food Safety and partners across sectors. They provide countries with practical guidance to strengthen foodborne disease surveillance and response, support integrated approaches across the food chain, and translate data into timely action to better protect public health."
Dr Intisar Salim Al-Gharibi, Director, Risk Assessment and Food Crisis Management
Food Safety and Quality Centre, Oman
Co-Chair, Working Group on Foodborne Disease Surveillance Integration, WHO Alliance for Food Safety
"Addressing foodborne diseases is critical for protecting public health, and these updated manuals provide guidance to countries to strengthen core capacities for foodborne disease surveillance and response required under the International Health Regulations and aligned with the WHO Global Strategy for Food Safety."
Mr Yahya Kandeh, Technical Officer, Food Safety
Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Ethiopia
Co-Chair, Working Group on Foodborne Disease Surveillance Integration, WHO Alliance for Food Safety
Read all the manuals on strengthening surveillance of and response to foodborne diseases here:
- Introductory manual
- Stage one manual (part A): Using indicator- and event-based surveillance to detect foodborne events
- Stage one manual (part B): Investigating foodborne disease outbreaks
- Stage two manual: Strengthening indicator-based surveillance
- Stage three manual: Integrating surveillance data to better understand risks across the food chain
