Food Safety Priorities for Developing Countries
Gerald Moy and Jørgen Schlundt, Food Safety Department,
World Health Organization Geneva, Switzerland
INTRODUCTION
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 foodborne 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.
These global food safety concerns are described as follows:
- Microbiological hazards and the foodborne
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 microorganisms
transmitted mainly by food, such as Salmonella
spp. and Campylobacter In developing countries,
food-borne microbial contaminants con-tribute
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 foodborne
diseases, including those caused by parasites.
- Chemical hazards remain a significant source
of foodborne illness. Chemical contaminants in food
include natural toxicants, such as mycotoxins and marine
toxins, environmental contaminants, such as mercury and
lead, and naturally occurring substances in plants. Food
additives, micronutrients, pesticides and veterinary
drugs are deliberately used in the food chain; however,
assurance must first be obtained that all such uses are
safe. In developing countries, control of chemicals in
food is often beyond the resources and capabilities of
many of them. More data on food intake and on the
concentrations of potentially toxic chemicals in food
are needed. Total diet studies and levels of persistent
organic pollutants in breast milk are needed, in
particular in developing countries, in order to permit
assessment and management of these risks, including
setting of national and international standards.
- New technologies, such as genetic
engineering, irradiation of food, and
modified-atmosphere packaging, can improve food
production and food safety. However, the potential risks
associated with application should be objectively and
rigorously assessed well before these technologies are
widely introduced. The basis for risk assessment should
be communicated effectively, so that the public can be
involved at the early stages of the process. Assessment
should be based on internationally agreed principles and
should be integrated with consideration of other
factors, such as health benefits, socioeconomic factors,
ethical issues and environmental considerations.
- 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. Foodborne disease has
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 foodborne 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.
WHO GLOBAL FOOD SAFETY STRATEGY
The goal of the WHO Global Strategy is to reduce the
health and social burden of foodborne disease through three
principal lines of action, namely
- advocating and supporting the development of
risk-based, sustainable, integrated food safety systems;
- devising science-based measures along the entire
food production chain that will prevent exposure to
unacceptable levels of microbiological agents and
chemicals in food; and
- assessing and managing foodborne risks and
communicating information, in cooperation with other
sectors and partners. Several food safety priorities for
developing countries have been identified, including:
- Surveillance of foodborne diseases and monitoring
of chemicals in the food supply. Surveillance and
monitoring are essential in the formulation of national
strategies to reduce food-related risks. Detailed and
accurate knowledge about the nature and levels of
foodborne diseases and chemicals in food are
prerequisites for action to lower these levels.
Therefore, the present paucity of reliable data on
food-borne diseases and contaminants in most countries
is a major impediment for evidence-based interventions.
A surveillance system employing sentinel sites and
regional and international laboratory networks would be
a major improvement in most regions. In addition, food
contamination monitoring capacities need to be
strengthened in developing counties. In both cases, data
on levels of contaminants in food must be directly
linked to statistics on foodborne diseases. This
requires an interdisciplinary approach that includes all
sectors dealing with foodborne diseases and food safety
in both the health and agriculture sectors.
- Better risk assessment. Risk-based approaches
for setting food safety priorities are essential to
ensure that scarce resources in developing countries are
used for the maximum effectiveness. Over the past five
decades, WHO has developed tools for risk assessment of
chemicals in food, including methodologies for both
hazard characterisation and exposure assessment. More
recently, a separate approach has been developed for the
assessment of microbial contaminants in collaboration
with FAO. With the help of these tools, joint WHO/FAO
expert groups have evaluated a large number of chemicals
and a limited number of microorganisms in food. Such
evaluations have served as the basis for setting
international standards and guidelines (Codex
Alimentarius), and for national food regulations or
other initiatives. Effective management of chemical and
microbiological hazards is enhanced through the use of
preventive approaches, such as the Hazard Analysis and
Critical Control Point (HACCP) system. Promotion and use
of these new tools, suitably adapted, among developing
countries should be undertaken to improve public health
through the reduction of foodborne hazards and their
associated diseases.
- Application of new technologies. As basic
agricultural resources, such as arable land and fresh
water, reach their limits, developing countries will
need to consider other means to improve production,
processing and preservation of food, including new
technologies such as food irradiation and genetic
engineering. However, before these new technologies can
be widely applied and accepted by consumers, they must
first be evaluated for food safety as well as other
aspects, which may include health and nutritional
benefits, environmental effects, and socioeconomic
consequences. Developing countries should develop a
framework, using internationally agreed methods and
guidelines, for evaluating the safety and other relevant
features of new technologies so that these technologies
may be used with confidence for the benefit of their
populations.
- Public health in the Codex Alimentarius.
Developing countries should ensure that consumer health
concerns in their countries are reflected in the
priorities of the Codex Alimentarius Commission. In
general, developing countries should ensure greater
involvement of the health sector in the development of
Codex standards, guidelines and recommendations.
Developing countries, in turn, should incorporate the
work of the Commission into their national legislation
to promote food safety and fair trading practices.
- Risk communication. With the world’s food
supply becoming truly global, a food safety problem in
one country often becomes an international problem, with
the world’s media serving as a lens to magnify and
disseminate information. To avoid misinformation and
inappropriate actions, the results of risk analyses
should be communicated in a readily understandable form
to risk managers and the public. The development of
methods and channels for fostering dialogue among, and
participation of, stakeholders, including consumers, in
the communication process should be established. Methods
for assessing the effects of risk communication should
also be developed. In line with the methodology so
developed, food safety publications and other products
for targeted audiences should be prepared.
- Capacity building. Formulation of national
food safety strategies should be developed to address
specific national needs such as technical support,
educational tools and training. Donor support will be
needed to prioritize food safety in public health in
developing countries. WHO is prepared to work with
developing countries to ensure a consistent, effective
approach to food safety. Country level activities on
food safety have been routinely undertaken by WHO as
food safety is one of WHO’s top health priorities. With
the possibility of terrorist threats to food, all
countries should establish basic prevention and response
programmes to deal with these and all food safety
emergencies.
NEED FOR CHANGE
While advances in food production and processing have
contributed to a safer and more diverse and abundant food
supply in most developed countries, these achievements must
be seen in the light of a perceived, and in many cases real,
increase in the prevalence of food-borne disease. Although
such diseases in most countries are underreported and levels
of chemical hazards in food are difficult to document, all
available data suggest that food safety is a major - and
probably growing - public health issue. The short-comings of
many present food safety systems stem from their failure to
focus their efforts in areas representing highest risks and
to link the strategies to reduce those risks across the full
food production chain. A new paradigm for the integration of
research, food-control monitoring, epidemiological
investigations and disease surveillance is needed to
effectively manage and lower foodborne disease. Within this
paradigm, the development of an interdisciplinary approach
with direct interaction between surveillance and risk
analysis systems presents a scientific basis for improved
foodborne disease prevention. Specific consideration should
be given to the situations in developing countries to
overcome barriers of non-collaboration among disciplines and
responsible agencies that has been experienced in many
industrialized countries. Today the World Health
Organization calls on all its Member States and those with
roles to play in assuring the safety of the food supply to
take more systematic and aggressive steps to significantly
reduce the risk of foodborne disease. Dealing with this
issue is one of the major challenges for the 21st century in
regard to public health, implying a significant re-direction
of food control efforts in many parts of the world.
BIOGRAPHY
Dr Gerald Moy is a staff scientist with the Department of
Food Safety at the World Health Organization in Geneva,
Switzerland and is generally responsible for the risk
assessment and management of chemicals in food, including
food additives, pesticide and animal drug residues,
environmental contaminants and naturally occurring toxins,
including inherent processing constituents. Dr Moy also
serves as the Coordinator for the WHO Global Environment
Monitoring System / Food Contamination Monitoring and
Assessment Programme, which collects and evaluates data on
human exposure to chemicals through food. He is the author
of numerous articles and publications in the area of food
safety.
Dr Jørgen Schlundt is Director of the Food Safety
Department of the WHO in Geneva and has primarily worked in
the area of health effects related to microorganisms and
chemical substances in food. He has participated in
international activities aimed at an optimisation of food
safety systems. He has been involved in WHO and FAO expert
consultations on food safety issues and also with European
and international organisations such as OECD and Codex
Alimentarius.
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