Summary of the AOAC-Sponsored Workshop Series Related to the Global Understanding of Food Fraud (GUFF): Mobilization of Resources for Food Authenticity Assurance and Food Fraud Prevention and Mitigation.

Background: Reports of incidents associated with the misrepresentation of food products as well as the adulteration of their composition leading, at times, to significant public health impacts are being recorded.

Objective: This paper aims at summarizing the outputs of three workshops dedicated to the theme "Global Understanding of Food Fraud" (GUFF), held in Quebec City in Canada (April 2017), Beijing in the People's Republic of China (October 2017) and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (October 2018).

Method: Based on the contributions made at these workshops, the paper reviews current knowledge related to food fraud shared by experts and stakeholders representing the food industry sector, food regulators both domestically and internationally and scientists from Academia.

Global perspectives on food fraud: results from a WHO survey of members of the International Food Safety Authorities Network (INFOSAN).

This survey of International Food Safety Authorities Network (INFOSAN) members regarding food fraud prevention, management, education, and information sharing included 166 WHO member states that resulted in 175 responses. The respondents engage in food fraud prevention (70%) or are responsible for food fraud incident response (74%). Nearly all respondents acknowledged a desire for more guidance and information on best practices in managing the full range of "food safety events involving food fraud" (97%), but also for prevention of such events (97%), indicating a need to provide technical support beyond acute incident response.

Comparative Analysis of Eleven Healthcare-Associated Outbreaks of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (Mers-Cov) from 2015 to 2017.

Since its emergence in 2012, 2,260 cases and 803 deaths due to Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) have been reported to the World Health Organization. Most cases were due to transmission in healthcare settings, sometimes causing large outbreaks. We analyzed epidemiologic and clinical data of laboratory-confirmed MERS-CoV cases from eleven healthcare-associated outbreaks in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Korea between 2015-2017.

The FAO/WHO International Food Safety Authorities Network in Review, 2004-2018: Learning from the Past and Looking to the Future.

Contemporary patterns of global food trade necessitate cross-border communication between government authorities when unsafe food enters international commerce. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)/World Health Organization (WHO) International Food Safety Authorities Network (INFOSAN), established in 2004, facilitates urgent communication between >600 members from 188 of the 194 FAO and WHO Member States around the world and supports the strengthening of food safety systems in an effort to mitigate the global burden of foodborne disease. For nearly 15 years, INFOSAN has been operating as a global, virtual community of practice (CoP), fostering knowledge transfer and exchange between members, and enabling crucial international communication during food safety emergencies.

Reported Direct and Indirect Contact with Dromedary Camels among Laboratory-Confirmed MERS-CoV Cases.

Dromedary camels () are now known to be the vertebrate animal reservoir that intermittently transmits the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) to humans. Yet, details as to the specific mechanism(s) of zoonotic transmission from dromedaries to humans remain unclear. The aim of this study was to describe direct and indirect contact with dromedaries among all cases, and then separately for primary, non-primary, and unclassified cases of laboratory-confirmed MERS-CoV reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) between 1 January 2015 and 13 April 2018.

A roadmap for MERS-CoV research and product development: report from a World Health Organization consultation.

Unlabelled: As part of the World Health Organization (WHO) R&D Blueprint initiative, leading stakeholders on Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) convened to agree on strategic public-health goals and global priority research activities that are needed to combat MERS-CoV.

Supplementary Information: The online version of this article (doi:10.1038/nm.

The melamine incident: implications for international food and feed safety.

Background: A major food safety incident in China was made public in September 2008. Kidney and urinary tract effects, including kidney stones, affected about 300,000 Chinese infants and young children, with six reported deaths. Melamine had been deliberately added at milk-collecting stations to diluted raw milk ostensibly to boost its protein content.

Powdered infant formula as a source of Salmonella infection in infants.

Powdered infant formula is not sterile and may be intrinsically contaminated with pathogens, such as Salmonella enterica, that can cause serious illness in infants. In recent years, at least 6 outbreaks of Salmonella infection in infants that have been linked to the consumption of powdered infant formula have been reported. Many of these outbreaks were identified because the Salmonella strains were unique in some way (e.

Avian influenza H5N1: risks at the human-animal interface.

Background: Great concern has arisen over the continued infection of humans with highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) of the H5N1 subtype. Ongoing human exposure potentially increases the risk that a pandemic virus strain will emerge that is easily transmissible among humans. Although the pathogenicity of a pandemic strain cannot be predicted, the high mortality seen in documented H5N1 human infections thus far has raised the level of concern.

Epidemiology of food-borne trematodes and other parasite infections in a fishing community on the Nam Ngum reservoir, Lao PDR.

Food-borne trematodes (FBT) are important causes of parasitic infections in many Asian countries. Parasitological surveys in Xai Udom, a small fishing community on the Nam Ngum reservoir, Lao People's Democratic Republic, revealed an overall parasitic infection rate in May 1999 of 68.8% (n = 173) and in December 1999 of 65.