4 November, Muscat, Oman –– The WHO Alliance for Food Safety held its 2025 Annual General Meeting in Muscat from 28 to 30 October 2025. Hosted by the Food Safety and Quality Centre (FSQC), the 3-day meeting gathered over 90 national delegates and international experts, in person and virtually, from more than 30 countries.
A platform for global and regional collaboration
The meeting provided a dynamic platform for the exchange of knowledge and coordination of efforts, allowing participants to identify capacity-building needs and opportunities.
The WHO Alliance for Food Safety is now well established as a global coordination mechanism for advancing the WHO Global Strategy for Food Safety 2022–2030, bringing together WHO Collaborating Centers and other partners to strengthen food safety systems worldwide.
Delegations from across the Eastern Mediterranean Region ¬– including from Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan ¬– joined international experts to reinforce collective action. Discussions focused on the urgent need to strengthen national foodborne disease surveillance, enhance food contamination monitoring and reduce the burden of foodborne illnesses through cross-sectoral collaboration and improved governance.
Oman strengthens global and regional leadership
Oman continues to position itself as a global and regional leader in food safety, contributing to the global shift towards safer, more resilient food systems.
As the Regional Coordinator for the Codex Coordinating Committee for the Near East, the FSQC in Oman facilitates dialogue among countries of the Region, promoting science-based approaches and best practices.
Hosting the Alliance meeting in Muscat underscored Oman’s leadership and the shared regional vision that safe food is essential for healthy communities and resilient economies.
During the meeting, Oman mobilized 2 multisectoral teams which worked collaboratively to develop a national roadmap for the implementation of the WHO Global Strategy for Food Safety 2022¬–2030 using the WHO/International Finance Corporation (IFC) roadmap tool which provides a framework for countries to assess their current food safety status, define priorities for improvement and measure progress.
Simultaneously, the teams conducted a structured assessment of Oman’s national foodborne disease surveillance system, identifying existing strengths and prioritizing areas for improvement, ensuring alignment with international standards and enhancing the country’s capacity to prevent and respond to foodborne threats.
Recommendations to advance food safety in the Eastern Mediterranean Region include:
broadening country participation to strengthen regional representation and technical diversity in the Alliance – the active engagement of experts from the Region is essential to promote inclusivity, enhance collaborative efforts and ensure that diverse technical perspectives inform future actions;
strengthening multisectoral collaboration mechanisms at national levels with competent authorities (human, animal, agriculture, trade, consumers and environment);
encouraging the regional exchange of expertise through mentoring, coaching initiatives and sharing of lessons learned to maintain collective momentum;
enhancing laboratory capacities, particularly in resource-limited settings, to improve detection, response and resilience capacities; and
striving to develop national food safety roadmaps using the WHO/IFC roadmap tool, enabling countries to align with the WHO Global Strategy for Food Safety through structured planning and measurable progress.
The Director of the Food Safety Department in Qatar confirmed that Qatar will host the WHO Alliance for Food Safety Annual General Meeting in 2028, bolstering regional commitment to shared leadership, innovation and progress in food safety.
