1.F. Scientific session: Assessing the Burden: A Roadmap to Estimating the Global Impact of Foodborne Diseases

Abstract In 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) published the first global estimates of the burden of foodborne diseases. This work highlighted the significance of foodborne diseases as a global public health issue and identified priority hazards requiring further attention. While widely recognized as a milestone, the estimates were also acknowledged to be underestimates, limited by substantial data gaps and methodological constraints. The initiative underscored the need to strengthen the evidence base for food safety decision-making through standardized and transparent burden of disease assessments, particularly using Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs). The Seventy-third World Health Assembly adopted a resolution mandating WHO to regularly monitor and prepare updated reports on the global burden of foodborne diseases, including estimates of mortality, incidence, and DALYs. In response, a second iteration of the global burden estimates has been launched. This collaborative, international initiative involves experts and institutions from all WHO regions and aims to improve transparency, consistency, and methodological rigor across the entire process-from data collection to final burden estimation. Key objectives include enhancing data quality, conducting systematic reviews, updating the source attribution study, and expanding the scope of analysis to include more hazards, country-level estimates, and time trends. The initiative also focuses on strengthening reproducibility and harmonizing the methodological pipeline across hazard types. This scientific workshop will retrace the key steps taken in this second iteration-from data collection and methodological development to the production of final estimates. It will highlight methodological advances, the rationale behind major analytical choices, and the challenges encountered throughout the process. The objectives of the workshop are to: 1. Discuss methodological innovations and challenges in estimating the global burden of foodborne disease; 2. Share insights from the second global burden of foodborne diseases study; 3. Facilitate knowledge exchange among public health professionals, researchers, and policymakers. The workshop is structured as a series of concise presentations covering key components of the study (namely data collection, modelling approaches, and source attribution) followed by interactive Q&A sessions. Presentations are thematically aligned to ensure coherence and continuity, providing participants with a comprehensive understanding of the estimation process. The format is designed to be participatory, encouraging the exchange of experiences, ideas, and feedback across regions and disciplines. The workshop will also be an opportunity to highlight possible roles of academic/technical institutions in the WHO initiative to estimate the burden of foodborne diseases and commemorate, and celebrate the designations of two new WHO Collaborating Centres. Key messages • Improved burden estimates of foodborne diseases support evidence-based food safety policies at national and global levels. • Enhanced methodological consistency ensures more reliable, comparable data on the global impact of foodborne hazards.