Food Protection Trends - May 2009 - 264

“perspectives” from your president t is my sincere hope that each of you reading this column has enjoyed a well prepared, nutritious, and safe meal in the past few hours. At the very least I hope you had access to some good, if not extremely healthy, fast food. From a food safety perspective, the statistical odds are overwhelming that the readers of Food Protection Trends did not get sick from anything they ate today. In the developed world, hundreds of millions of servings of food will be consumed today with only a small number of illnesses associated with consumption of this food. As food safety professionals we are keenly aware of the challenges of producing, processing, and distributing food that is safe, but many of us are not well informed about those without enough to eat. The United States and other developed countries have a small percentage of their population that does not always have enough to eat, but most of the time these individuals have access to government supported programs that assist with access to foods. In many developing countries and areas of the world, there are large numbers of people who do not have access to nutritious food or even to any food. Earlier this year I was privileged to speak at the Dubai International Fo o d S a f e t y C o n f e re n c e . T h e conference’s theme was “Food Safety in Light of Food Security” and the topic that I was asked to speak on was “Do the Emerging and Developed Countries Share the Same Food Safety Concerns?” Although somewhat familiar with this topic, I needed to do additional research before my presentation. The story that the available data tells is dispiriting, and I believe that it is important that I share with you some of the information that I discovered. There are currently about 6.5 billion people living on the earth I By STAN BAILEy PRESIDENT “While we do not currently know all the facts about the burden of foodborne disease in the developing world, it is clear that food safety and security issues are different in developed and developing countries” today. More than 850 million (13% of world’s population) of these people are malnourished, with 799 million of these living in the world’s developing countries. More than 153 million of the world’s malnourished people are children under the age of five, and six million of these children die each year from lack of adequate food. The people that go to bed hungry every day are far more concerned about finding something to eat (food security) than about the safety of their food. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, food security exists “when all people, at all times, have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.” At least 54 countries do not produce enough food to feed their people, nor can they afford to import the necessary commodities to make up the gap. Most of these countries are in Sub-Saharan Africa. Lack of dietary diversity and essential minerals and vitamins also contributes to increased child and adult mortality. Vitamin A deficiency impairs the immune system, increasing the annual death toll from measles and other diseases by an estimated 1.3 – 2.5 million children. The global disease burden is estimated to be at least 1.8 million deaths each year. Estimates have suggested that waterborne disease caused by protozoa, viruses and bacteria accounts for 88% of these deaths. The intestinal parasite , schistosomiasis alone may account for 200,000,000 cases and 200,000 deaths each year. Waterborne bacterial pathogens most frequently associated with unsanitary water include diarrheogenic E. coli, Campylobacter, Vibrios, and Shigella. The status of global food security, or should we say insecurity for many people is reasonably well documented. However, the status of food safety or food related morbidity and mortality has only recently begun to become well documented in the developed world. Unfortunately, there is little solid information about the status of food safety and disease burden in the developing world. Since the early 1990s developing countries have begun to systematically track food safety. Initially, two types 264 FOOD PROTECTION TRENDS | MAY 2009

Food Protection Trends - May 2009

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