About the Almanac
What is the Almanac?
With this online World Food Safety Almanac, the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) aims to open a window into the global landscape of food and feed safety. This comprehensive resource offers in-depth information on the regulatory and the administrative frameworks of numerous countries highlighting the key public institutions responsible for ensuring food and feed safety. By providing clear, accessible insights, the Almanac is designed to be a practical and useful tool - enabling users to identify relevant authorities/institutions and potential partners for international collaboration quickly and effectively. In doing so, the BfR hopes to foster greater alignment of existing standards and procedures across borders in food and feed safety, helping to streamline efforts and thereby avoid unnecessary duplication of work in this field.
Why is the Almanac necessary?
Our food is so much a part of our daily life that we rarely consider how much of it originates from other countries. The globalisation of food production and trading offers consumers a wide variety of options from which to choose. However, globalisation also makes consumer health protection more challenging. As supply chains become increasingly complex, the work of scientific risk assessment, risk management and risk communication are becoming more and more demanding. Today, food and feed safety can only be ensured by taking an international approach, through close collaboration among countries and institutions.
From print to digital: a new era for food safety knowledge
Since 2009, the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment has published five editions of the EU Food Safety Almanac in several languages, making expert knowledge accessible across Europe. In 2017, two special editions expanded this reach: the 'European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) Food Safety Almanac' and the Special edition for the Community of Portuguese Language Countries. The most recent printed edition of the EU Food Safety Almanac was published in August 2021.
But the world, and the need for up-to-date information, moves fast. In response, the BfR developed and launched the online World Food Safety Almanac in 2022 marking a pivotal shift from static print to a dynamic, digital platform. In 2025, this global knowledge hub took a major leap forward: the relaunched website now offers a fresh design, improved usability, and powerful new features - ensuring that vital food safety data is always just a click away.
The Almanac's maintenance policy
Country editors are asked to update their profile as soon as possible in the event of major changes to their public food and feed safety structure, and to ensure the accuracy of the content once per calendar year. If a profile has not been checked for accuracy for two consecutive calendar years, a message will appear at the top of the content to indicate that information may be out of date.
How can I contribute?
If you would like to add your country and/or your food and feed safety institution(s) to the World Food Safety Almanac, please contact the BfR directly (international(at)bfr.bund.de) to request an account. With your account, you will be able to create a profile for your country or institution and update the content at any time. The BfR is the administrator of the World Food Safety Almanac. However, each country, institution or organisation is responsible for the contents of its own profile. We encourage all countries and all public food and feed safety institutions to enter and update their profiles. We hope to expand the World Food Safety Almanac and to make this platform a comprehensive reference tool for the whole world.