IFIC Foundation Releases Food Safety Communicator's Guide in Beijing

The International Food Information Council (IFIC) Foundation released Food Safety: A Communicator’s Guide to Improving Understanding during a two-day workshop co-hosted with the China Food and Drug Administration (China FDA).

The guide, prepared by IFIC Foundation with funding from USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service, provides health professionals, food and nutrition stakeholders, government officials, journalists, and others a variety of tools to help with planning and execution of food safety risk communication through a practical, hands-on approach for communicators.

Effective risk communication depends greatly on audience characteristics, as well as local and national cultural contexts in which the communication occurs. To that end, the guide provides tools and templates for risk communication in unique environments, and discussion about specific food safety situations.

The guide includes tools for communicators and features topics including:

• Defining Food Safety. 
• Building a Practical Framework for Successful Food Safety Risk Communication.
• Guidelines for Interacting with News Media.
• Regulating & Communicating Food Safety on Global and Local Levels.

“Safe food for all people is a universal goal,” said IFIC Foundation President Kimberly Reed. “It is a great honor to launch this needed resource here in Beijing during our joint workshop with the China Food and Drug Administration for 120 Chinese government officials and journalists.”

“In the overall view, risk communication is still in the early stage in China. We are trying to build risk communication platforms for all of the stakeholders proactively,” said Du Xiaoxi, CFDA Deputy Director-General, Department III, Food Safety Inspection Division. “We are drafting risk communication guidelines for Chinese circumstances. The need for risk communication experts in our administration is very important. This is why we are holding this training program.”

The IFIC Foundation-China FDA workshop featured leading experts from the U.S., China – including the China FDA, China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment, China Agricultural University, and Peking University – and the World Health Organization.

An electronic version of the full guide is available at www.foodinsight.org/foodsafetyguide. The guide also will be translated into a variety of languages including Mandarin Chinese, Vietnamese, Bahasa Indonesian, and others. Check www.foodinsight.org/foodsafetyguide, where they will be posted in the next few months.