Feeding the world with ISO standards on World Food Day

Zero Hunger is one of the ambitious United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the theme of this year’s World Food Day. ISO International Standards are stepping up to the plate by demonstrating that they are valuable tools in achieving it.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 815 million people in the world go to bed hungry while 1.9 billion people are overweight¹⁾. Yet achieving a world with zero hunger by 2030 is not only possible, it is the theme of this year’s FAO World Food Day, celebrated annually on 16 October.

ISO has more than 1 600 International Standards for the food production sector that directly help to end world hunger by creating confidence in food products, improving agricultural methods and promoting sustainable and ethical purchasing. These include nearly 850 standards from one of ISO’s most established technical committees, IS/TC 34, Food products, that encompass everything from animal welfare to food products, such as cereals and milk, and ingredients testing. It is also responsible for the ISO 22000 series on food safety management that covers standards related to food manufacturing, farming, packaging, catering and animal foodstuffs and feed production.

By Clare Naden