Past,present and future activities in food hygiene of the Veterinary Public Health Unit (VPH) of the World Health Organization

The paper contains a review of the activities in the field of food hygiene performed by the Veterinary Public Health Unit of WHO in close collaboration with other divisions and programmes of the Organization. It gives a general understanding about the purpose and objectives of such activities in the past and present, and near future. The paper mentions the most important achievements which were reached by the Organization in meat and milk hygiene, fish and shellfish hygiene, surveillance of foodborne diseases, microbiological specifications for foods, food virology education and training in food hygiene and elaboration of a strategy on prevention and control of foodborne diseases due to food of animal origin. The paper contains 44 references, the majority of which are still available at the World Health Organization.