In the Journal of the American Medical Association for April 12 the Surgeon General of the United States, Dr David Satcher, comments on the growing global health problems related to food safety. He writes that food-borne illnesses attributable to pathogenic organisms or other contaminants seriously threaten health standards in developing and developed countries. Outbreaks of food poisoning may spread rapidly and across frontiers, disproportionately affecting children and the aged. Diarrhoeal episodes are frequent, often causing deaths, and in 70 per cent of instances can be traced to biological contamination of foodstuffs.
In industrialised countries, according to the World Health Organisation, less than 10 per cent of food-borne illnesses are reported to the health authorities, while in developing countries the proportion is probably less than 1 per cent. The burden of sickness and death world-wide may be enormous. Importation of foodstuffs is a prime factor in the situation. Thus, co-operative efforts between nations and governments are necessary to improve the level of safety. Food-borne illnesses in emerging economies put an unnecessary strain on struggling health services and at the same time adversely affect agricultural practices and market patterns.
The World Health Organisation takes a crucial lead in the global approach to food safety, to be comprehensively reviewed at the 53rd World Health Assembly in May. The role of the WHO is to increase the application of scientific methods to food quality control and improve the public health activities of the Codex Alimentarius Commission. An increasing proportion of the food consumed in most countries now originates elsewhere. Methods of cultivation and processing crops are therefore diverse, and the many types of gastrointestinal infections suffered by food workers and handlers increase the possibility of contamination and the range of the pathogens encountered.