Segurança Alimentar e Vigilância Sanitária: dois pesos e duas medidas e a qualidade fora da balança

Abstract

The question that guides the drafting of this article is directed to the study on the relationship between food safety and health surveillance for assessing the relevance of the subject of food quality (such as the area of attention and responsibility of health surveillance) in the deployment and implementation of programs and national plans for food and nutrition in Brazil throughout the 20th century as well as to date. This article is derived from concern about the possible absence of the theme “quality” in these programs and governmental plans and the consequent ineffective results in improving nutrition and health conditions of specific groups and of the Brazilian population in general. The present study was a qualitative analysis of the subject of food safety and its interaction with health surveillance, in what it is mentioned over all, to the question of the quality, under the optics of the laboratorial component The applied methods involved data collection, bibliographical research, and posterior critical analysis. During the course of this study, we realized that multiple governmental sectors are involved in the issue of food security and that the theme “quality” is not the preferred focus. We believe that without the effective presence of health surveillance, particularly its laboratory component, in the sense of assessing the quality of food, the social issue of hunger can be resolved over the next few years; however, the same cannot be applicable to the question of the health of the population.