Gossner CM, de Jong B, Hoebe CJ, Coulombier D, European Food and Waterborne Diseases Study Group. Euro Surveill. 2015; 20(25):pii=21166

The authors of the paper conclude that the platform to facilitate the timely exchange of information between countries has strengthened the role of the Food- and Waterborne Diseases and Zoonoses (FWD) network. Combined with outbreak data collected by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the urgent inquiries give a good overview of the outbreaks’ characteristics. Their analysis, however, also showed that the coordination between the risk assessors and risk managers at the EU/EEA level has to improve, particularly when events are reported. They propose to develop cross-sectoral guidelines for outbreak reporting.