Healthy marketplaces: an approach for ensuring food safety and environmental health

With over half of the world's population living in urban areas, an ever growing number of consumers are relying on food markets to meet their daily need for safe and nutritious food. As part of its Healthy Cities Project, WHO has developed an approach to improve that the safety and nutritional quality of foods sold in urban markets. The Healthy Marketplaces approach is being used in several pilot projects in cities around the world to coordinate efforts of all stakeholders to achieve incremental, but sustainable improvements in food markets. In addition to improvements to the physical infrastructure and essential services, behavioural changes by various market participants, including primary producers, wholesalers, market vendors and consumers, are emphasized.