We are all exposed to foodborne risks but it is those in the poorest countries that are most susceptible to serious illness and life threatening diseases through poor food safety and management. Foodborne contamination is responsible for 200 diseases including kidney and liver failure, cancer and neural disorders. People don’t realise that food and waterborne diarrhoeal diseases kill an estimated two million people annually, about 1.5 million of them children.
The CDC estimates that 4.5 billion people in the developing world are chronically exposed to Aflatoxin (fungal contamination) that affects staple foods like maize (both before and after harvest), this can lead to a variety of cancers and immune disorders.
It’s estimated that aflatoxin may be a causative agent in up to 30% of liver cancer cases globally each year. Current evidence also suggests an association between aflatoxins and stunting in children; affecting their growth and development. Stunting affects 165 million children under the age of five that is 26% of all children globally.
The challenges we face addressing food safety are tenfold, we have to take into consideration a number of factors such as lack of understanding of food safety from the general public, there is often a lack of technical expertise and capability to roll out systems across different countries, laboratories can be poorly equipped, we sometimes face poor enforcement of legislation and regulatory limits and changes to people’s lifestyles such as rapid urbanisation.
54% of the global population is now urbanised rising to almost 70% by 2050, largely in the developing world. With rapid urbanisation come longer food-chains to feed urban populations and this poses new risks such as contamination during transportation or storage – the perfect conditions for growth and survival of harmful microorganisms.
Urbanisation has led to growth in consumption of street food by 2.5 billion people daily. This massive expansion in informal markets/street foods has been associated with food safety and adulteration issues.
So how do we help improve food safety?
We work with businesses to help them roll out internal systems to test food products. We work with partners and local enterprises to build good hygiene and manufacturing practices, we work closely with food producers to see how they handle food production through all stages of the food chain.
We have to be adaptable and there is no one size fits all approach, for example we’ve been working with a number of partners in Ethiopia in the capacity building of a local laboratory ‘Bless AgriFood’. In October 2014 the laboratory achieved an international ISO certification including testing food safety parameters such as aflatoxin.
In 2015, further investment and capacity will be made towards addressing other food safety issues such as pesticides and metal contamination in foods. By creating access and expertise to safe food for the end consumer, we are also helping countries meet international standards that are required for export so encouraging economic stability and growth.
We have two core objectives, we need to continue to bang the drum, raising awareness of food safety on nutrition and health and we need to enhance countries’ capacities to improve food safety. By achieving these two objectives, we hope to contribute to the reduction in the burden of foodborne disease and help countries have economic growth through access to markets and trade.
New challenges will continue to arise as our environment continues to evolve. Contamination in one part of the world can lead to global repercussions due to international food trade and human movements.
In this interdependent world, food safety therefore is not a problem for one part of the world or another, it’s a problem that involves us all and that we all have to address together.
Please visit the GAIN website to read more about the work we do to tackle the complex issues surrounding malnutrition and food safety.
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