The issue of food safety and food-borne diseases is attracting greater attention globally because of its serious implications on public health. However, even though in this modern era when food processing and biomedical technology are so scientifically advanced food-borne diseases and illnesses are of great concern because they are still very prevalent, even in the developed countries.
The US Food Safety Department notes that despite having laws in place since 1906 intended to ensure a wholesome meat supply, food-borne illness has become a major public health epidemic in this country. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which reports only what it believes to be a fraction of food-borne disease incidents, estimates that 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations, and 5,000 deaths are caused by food-borne pathogens annually. That is 200,000 Americans are sickened by a food-borne disease every day, of whom 900 are hospitalized and 14 died. The vast majority of these food-borne illnesses can be traced to the production, processing, or consumption of items of animal origin—meat, poultry, fish, dairy products, and eggs.
It adds that it is not the actual consumption of meat and poultry that causes food-borne illness, although such consumption increases the risk of heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, cancer, and other health conditions. Rather, it is the presence of faeces on meat and poultry that causes humans to ingest food-borne pathogens and, therefore, get sick from eating these products. Despite the “official” USDA policy of zero tolerance for fecal contamination, the extraordinary rates of food-borne illness in this country are directly caused by eating poultry and meat contaminated with faeces even though they passed inspection by USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (“FSIS”).
Gerald Moy and Jørgen Schlundt, Food Safety Department of the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that the Fifty-third World Health Assembly in 2000, through its resolution WHA53.15, requested the Director-General of the World Health Organization to put in place a global strategy to reduce food-borne diseases and to initiate a range of other activities on food safety and health. Since then WHO has a global food safety strategy in consultation with Member States and other interested parties. In part, the strategy reflects the current food safety concerns, including those of importance to developing countries, but also addresses the problems foreseen in the near future. Microbiological hazards and the food-borne diseases they cause are an increasingly important public health problem. In many countries significant increases have been reported over the past few decades in the incidence of diseases caused by micro-organisms transmitted mainly by food, such as Salmonella spp. and Campylobacter. In developing countries, food-borne microbial contaminants contribute significantly to the estimated 2.1 million deaths from diarrhoeal diseases in the developing world. While difficult to document, it is believed that developing countries bear the brunt of a wide range of food-borne diseases, including those caused by parasites.
They also pointed out that building capacity in food safety is essential in most countries, especially developing ones. Both positive and negative experiences from countries with well-developed food safety systems could be used as a means to improve systems globally. Food-borne diseases have a significant impact not only on health but also on development. Moreover, globalisation of the food trade and development of international food standards have raised awareness of the interaction between food safety and export potential for developing countries. Putting food safety on the political agenda is the first step in reducing food-borne illness; however, even with this step in place, many developing countries lack the technical expertise and financial resources to implement food safety policies. Support from donors for capacity building in order both to protect health and to improve food trade, would help to build up a framework for sustainable development. Hopefully strategies to ensure open access to the markets of the developed world, including consideration of agricultural subsidy policies, will be considered an integral part of such support from donors.
Against this backdrop it was a welcome announcement by the Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Kellawan Lall that regulatory work is now being undertaken by the relevant authorities to create a system of inspection, especially of meat, that is beneficial for all parties involved as efforts by government to upgrade and modernise neighborhood/municipal markets continue. Lall urged inspectors, who have been duly trained, to conduct their duties, which would, in effect, stymie the practice of selling exposed meat on the roadside and potentially halt the slaughtering of animals at markets or in their immediate environs.
This is the way to go because these unhealthy practices at the municipal markets have to be stamped out so as to ensure public health does not come under threat. In this regard, Neighbourhood Democratic Councils need to play a greater role and such properly equipping them through building capacity is essential.