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WHO/FAO Diet Report Doesn't Meet Data Quality Act Standards The World Health Organization/Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations is supposed to be the watchdog on global diet, food and disease issues. Reports issued by WHO/FAO are supposed to be definitive and reliable. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, however, the latest WHO/FAO report "Expert Consultation on Diet, Nutrition and the Prevention of Chronic Diseases" cannot be used by the U.S. Federal Government because the Report does not meet the basic quality standards of the Data Quality Act. HHS pointed out in its comments on the WHO/FAO Report, " The consultation process of the development of the WHO/FAO Report and the resulting Report itself would not meet these current U.S. data quality standard, as the process lacked a high degree of transparency, and the data and analytic results contained within the Report were not subject to formal, independent, external peer review, among other criteria." HHS also criticized the Report for bias: i.e., "interpreting data to support policy outcomes." Unfortunately, the U.S. Data Quality Act does not currently apply globally. The WHO/FAO can and does operate on a quality level that is unacceptable in the United States. Winston proposes an amendment to the WOA/FAO Charter that requires the organizations to comply with Data Quality Act Standards. Maybe then we could believe what we read. |
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