New Food Safety Article Discusses Future Trends
From time to time, we have noted the significant litigation that may arise from food recalls. For those readers interested in this area, we flag a recent article in the International Journal of Food Microbiology. Questeda, et al., "Trends in technology, trade and consumption likely to impact on microbial food safety," 10 I.J. Food Micro. 1016 (2010).
Experts from Unilever, the UK Food Standards Authority, and the US National Center for Food Safety and Technology outline what they think of as the key future threats to food safety, and strategies to tackle them. The article looks at current and potential future trends in technology, consumption, and trade of food that may impact on food-borne disease. Among the most important factors driving an increase in the burden of food-borne disease in the next few decades were found to be the anticipated doubling of the global demand for food; the growing international trade in food; and a significantly increased consumption of certain high-value food commodities such as meat and poultry and fresh produce.
The article opines that the most important factor in reducing the burden of food-borne disease was an improved ability to first detect and investigate a food safety issue and then to develop effective control measures. Given the global scale of impact on food safety that current and potentially future trends have, it is observed that a key role may be played by intergovernmental organizations and by international standard setting bodies.
