The task will be carried out by the Research Group for Risk-Benefit at the DTU National Food Institute. The group is internationally recognised for its research in risk-benefit assessment and burden of disease studies and has worked with WHO for many years.
This is the first time WHO has established a collaborating centre with a specific focus on the risks and benefits of foods and diets.
The new collaborating centre will support WHO in estimating the disease burden from foodborne diseases and in developing integrated risk-benefit approaches, in which nutrition, microbiological risks and chemical contamination in foods, as well as food-related disease burden and sustainability aspects, are assessed together.
Recognised scientific expertise in integrated assessment
WHO’s Department of Nutrition and Food Safety (NFS) has a vision of a world free from malnutrition and foodborne diseases. The new collaborating centre at the DTU National Food Institute will contribute scientific expertise to help WHO in achieving healthy, safe and sustainable dietary patterns.
“As researchers, we usually measure our work in terms of published scientific articles, but being designated as a WHO Collaborating Centre gives us a real opportunity to play a part in improving global health by supporting efforts to increase food safety and reduce the disease burden worldwide,” says Sara Monteiro Pires, Senior Researcher at the DTU National Food Institute, who heads the new centre together with Senior Researcher Morten Poulsen.
From single risks to integrated assessment
Traditionally, research in this field has often focused separately on either food safety or nutrition. In recent decades, however, researchers have begun systematically to assess risks and benefits together using so-called risk-benefit approaches.
A key tool is the use of DALYs (Disability-Adjusted Life Years). By expressing foodborne infections, chronic diseases and the effects of chemicals in foods in DALYs, it becomes possible to compare very different risk factors and diseases on the same scale. This provides a stronger basis for prioritising interventions where they will have the greatest impact.
The integrated assessments cover, for example, foodborne diseases caused by microbiological and chemical contaminants and the health consequences of changes in dietary patterns; such as when one food is replaced by another, or when new foods are introduced in diets.
Stronger data and capacity building
Specifically, the new centre will:
- support WHO in strengthening foodborne disease data, including maintaining and updating WHO foodborne disease estimates;
- support WHO in developing an integrated approach for risk-benefit assessment of food including nutritional, microbial and chemical contaminations, taking into account the sustainability aspects; and
- support WHO in assisting its Member States to strengthen national data capacity with respect to foodborne diseases, source attribution, and risk-benefit assessments.
“Our tasks may, for example, include generating data, proposing methods and developing guidance documents and training programmes that can support countries in carrying out risk–benefit assessments, with the overall aim of reducing the disease burden associated with foods and dietary patterns,” says Sara Monteiro Pires.
