Import of foodborne disease

Public health scientists in developed countries warn of a growing danger from illness and disease imported into their countries in untested foodstuffs. The boom in international trade over the last 10 years has placed a huge strain on national food safety and public health agencies, who now find their food safety checks on foreign imported foodstuff hopelessly out of date and inadequate to meet the rise in imports. While global markets have been created and once-closed markets now opened, it has not been possible to ensure global food standards or effective safety systems to monitor the monitor the international movement of foodstuffs.

The problems which imported foodstuffs may pose include polluted water used to grow food in developing countries, inappropriate chemical use or contamination, inappropriate harvesting, storage or handling, unsupervised or inspected marketing systems, and unsuitable transport systems. Scientists at the World Health Organisation are further concerned about the transport of exotic microbes, viruses, bacteria and parasites into countries not used to these exotic strains and the disease risk this may pose. International food imports bring new pathogens into countries where the people are not immune to them.

Scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the USA list the following instances of food poisoning related to imported foodstuffs in the 1990's; raspberries from Guatemala; carrots from Peru; strawberries, scallions and cantaloupes from Mexico; coconut milk from Thailand; canned mushrooms from China; an Israeli snack food, and a multinational batch of alfalfa sprouts. The CDC says disease borne by domestic and foreign foods kills thousands of Americans and sickens millions every year, mostly the very young, very old and very ill.