USA – A report published on Tuesday by the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) claims that consumers will never be risk free from food-borne illnesses.

According to the ‘Emerging Microbiological Food Safety Issues: Implications for Control in the 21st Century’ report, current food science is not sufficient to protect everyone against all the emerging health issues associated with a diverse food supply.

The report says that the likelihood of illness among susceptible groups is growing because of increasing populations of children, elderly consumers and individuals dependent upon immunosuppressant drugs.

Speaking about the report, co-author Douglas Archer said: “Current technologies and production methods cannot provide a food supply that is completely free of pathogenic micro organisms.” The IFT report states that food safety should look at parasites, viruses and biotoxins as well as the likes of Ecoli and Salmonella.
The report notes that the ability to link food to human illness is improving. It stresses the need for increasing surveillance of food borne diseases to help determine causes and improve controls and prevention.

The report looks at farm to table procedures, processes to recognise and respond to outbreaks, recommendations necessary for reducing pathogenic influence, data generation and risk assessment.

Emerging Microbiological Food Safety Issues is available from www.ift.org/govtrelations/microfs.