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First WHO expert meeting on optimal intake of animal-source foods [1]

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Date: 2024-11-11

Scope and purpose

Diet plays a critical role in shaping the health and well-being of both individuals and populations. Healthy, safe diets help to protect against malnutrition in all its forms, as well as noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), including diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer, and foodborne diseases caused by physical, chemical or biological hazards. The balance between the amount of foods coming from animals (animal-source foods) and from plants (plant-source foods) is an important component of healthy diets. Animal-source foods are a good source of highly bioavailable protein and key vitamins and minerals, but consumption of certain types and at certain levels has been linked to increased risk of diet-related NCDs. Consumption of plant-source foods has been linked to decreased risk of diet-related NCDs but diets consisting almost exclusively of plant-source foods may increase risk of nutrient deficiencies. A growing body of evidence also suggests that the food systems used to produce animal- and plant-source foods can impact the environment in different and significant ways, including the emission of greenhouse gases and water and land use. Additionally, unsafe food containing harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites or chemical substances causes significant illness and death globally, and both animal- and plant-source foods can be major sources of these contaminants.

WHO supports Member States in their efforts to promote healthier, safer and more sustainable diets as a priority through a variety of actions, including the recent release of several relevant guidelines on macronutrient intake and policy actions, activities promoting healthy diets in schools, sporting events and other venues, and provision of scientific advice to the Codex Alimentarius through joint FAO/WHO programs such as the Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) and Joint Expert Meetings on Microbiological Risk Assessment (JEMRA). Building off this work, and to provide much-needed global guidance on optimal intakes of animal-source foods, WHO has brought together experts from all over the world, with a wide range of relevant expertise to develop:

a WHO guideline on optimal intake of animal-source foods; and

a comprehensive implementation framework that will take into consideration nutritional, microbial and chemical risk and benefits associated with animal- and plant-source foods, while taking sustainable aspects into account.

Drawing from the group of experts, guideline development will be carried out by the WHO guideline development group (GDG) and development of the comprehensive implementation framework by the risk-benefit assessment group (RBAG). These groups will have their first joint meeting São Félix da Marinha, Portugal, on 11–15 November 2024. This hybrid meeting will provide an opportunity for the experts to get to know one another, familiarize themselves with various WHO processes and review and discuss current evidence, with an overall focus on laying the groundwork for the development of the guideline and implementation framework. Specific objectives and expected outputs are described below.

The objectives of the meeting are to:

Familiarize all experts with the overall rationale for the work, the WHO guideline development process, and concepts of risk-benefit assessment. GDG

Review and discuss the results of the scoping review supporting the guideline

Establish the scope of the guideline development work, including populations the recommendations in the guideline will cover and evidence that will be used to formulate the recommendations, i.e. which health (and other relevant) outcomes to consider, which types of evidence, and how the evidence will be assessed) RBAG

Review and discuss the results of the scoping review supporting the implementation framework

Formulate a series of proposals to develop a framework to help Member States formulate their recommendations for providing healthier and safer food.

The expected outcomes of the meeting are:

GDG

Key questions to guide the evidence collection and overall work of developing the guideline in PICO format (population, intervention, comparator, outcome)

Plan for evidence collection and analysis (including evidence for health effects and for contextual factors such as values and preferences, health equity impact, resource implications, and feasibility and acceptability of implementing potential recommendations) RBAG

Selection of the relevant hazards and to define the most suited approaches to estimate the risk of the relevant hazard in foods, considering the substitution.

Plan for data and evidence collection

Formulation of a series of proposals to implement a risk-benefit assessment framework to help Member States formulate their recommendations on the provision of healthier and safer food, while taking sustainable aspects into account.

Attendance at this meeting is reserved for members of the expert group, external technical experts, invited observers, and members of the WHO Secretariat.



List of experts



The following list of experts is proposed for this meeting. Please find below their bio sketches. If you have any comments, please contact at [email protected] no later than 10 November 2024.

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[1] Url: https://www.who.int/news-room/events/detail/2024/11/11/default-calendar/first-who-expert-meeting-on-optimal-intake-of-animal-source-foods

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