Food safety in an international perspective

Abstract

Access to safe food is a basic individual right. Yet, as stated by Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), ‘‘food safety is a hidden, and often overlooked, problem’’ (Chan 2014). Indeed, foodborne disease represents a significant burden to public health throughout the world. Unsafe food can lead to a range of health problems, with new threats to food safety constantly emerging. Food that contains harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites or chemical substances is responsible for more than 200 diseases, both acute and chronic, ranging from diarrhoea to cancer. WHO estimates that the burden of foodborne disease is much higher than currently reported (WHO Regional Office for Europe 2015; WHO 2015a). The human food chain is longer and more complex than ever before, and demographic, cultural, economic and environmental developments—globalized trade, travel and migration, ageing populations, changing consumer preferences and habits, industrialization and new technologies, emergencies, climate change and extreme weather events—are increasing foodborne health risks. Driven by consumer demand, people now have greater access to a wider variety of foods, produced out of season, transported across continents, processed for their convenience and increasingly eaten outside the home. A failure in food safety at any link in the long and complex food chain—from the environment, through primary production, processing, transport, storage, catering or at home—can have significant health and economic consequences, which are augmented by the fact that contamination from a single source may become widespread and have international ramifications (WHO Regional Office for Europe 2015). Dr. Chan points out: ‘‘A local food safety problem can rapidly become an international emergency. Investigation of an outbreak of foodborne disease is vastly more complicated when a single plate or package of food contains ingredients from multiple countries’’ (WHO 2015a). The increasing public health concern over antimicrobial resistance is also a food-safety issue that must be addressed (Kruse and Racioppi 2011; WHO 2015c). Antibiotic use in food animals—for treatment, disease prevention or growth promotion—is considered to spread resistant bacteria and resistance genes from food animals to humans through the food-chain (Kruse and Racioppi 2011). Current surveillance and reporting systems for foodborne disease are limited and detect only a small fraction of cases. This underreporting is greater in countries with less advanced laboratory capacities and less developed surveillance systems. Better data and improved information-sharing are needed to respond effectively to risks (WHO Regional Office for Europe 2015). In an increasingly interconnected world, international collaboration and information-sharing is & Hilde Kruse HIK@euro.who.int