WHO has designated the DTU National Food Institute to host a new collaborating center, named "WHO Collaborating center for Risks and Benefits of Foods and Diets". The four-year designation will strengthen WHO's work to prevent disease and promote health by improving knowledge of the risks and benefits of foods and dietary patterns.
The Research Group for Risk-Benefit will carry out the task 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 the WHO for many years.
This is the first time the WHO has established a collaborating center with a specific focus on the risks and benefits of foods and diets.
The new collaborating center will support the 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.
Recognized 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 center at the DTU National Food Institute will contribute scientific expertise to help the 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 center 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 center 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 foodborne chemicals 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 with the most significant 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 into diets.
Stronger data and capacity building
Specifically, the new center will:
- support the WHO in strengthening foodborne disease data, including maintaining and updating WHO foodborne disease estimates;
- support the 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."
Sara Monteiro Pires, Senior Researcher, DTU National Food Institute
Facts about the WHO Collaborating Center
Name: WHO Collaborating Center for Risks and Benefits of Foods and Diets
Duration: Four years
Purpose: To support WHO and its Member States in reducing the disease burden from unsafe foods and unhealthy dietary patterns through integrated risk-benefit assessments and a strengthened evidence base.
The collaborating center is hosted by the Research Group for Risk-Benefit at the DTU National Food Institute.
What happens to your body when you eat takeaway food too often?