THE SAFETY OF IMPORTED FOODS

摘要

Food chain globalization Is unavoidable. Production and marketing practices are driven by lower cost, climatic conditions, seasonal products, land and water availability and cost new product and technologies development for consumer needs and rapid long distance shipping, centralize production with fewer companies controlling the trade. As someone else prepares our meals we lose control of our diet. Consumer protection from imported foods in a complex food chain, is not easy. Global foodborne disease burden is not well defined. Feed ingredient adulteration presents challenges to the feed industry and regulatory agencies. Food shipments from developing to the developed countries are increasing exponentially as agricultural commodities become a source of income in developing countries. Cheap labor attracts international agro-business. Can local production meet global food safety challenges? Personal and environmental hygiene, endemic diseases, questionable agricultural practices, processing practices, foodborne disease surveillance, problem traceability and regulatory sophistication to oversee the food chain are areas with potential impact on the safety of imported and exported foods. According to US/FDA in 2007 about 15 % of imported food shipments were visually inspected, and < 0.5% sampled for testing. Considering imported volumes and inspector numbers in various countries one may wonder if the visual inspections and limited sampling assure anticipated degree of food safety. Foodborne disease outbreaks from imported foods have been documented repeatedly. For 2008 and 2009 RASFF reported 25 and 54 outbreaks respectively due to imported foods. This year the extensive E. coli O104:H4 outbreaks in 15 EU countries and USA from contaminated sprouts have been attributed to imported to Germany and France Egyptian fenugreek seeds. Despite the complexity of the international trade significant progress has been made in developing rapid alert systems by countries, European Union and WHO which may result in early containment of potential food safety risks.