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【Food Safety News】中低收入国家饱受食源性疾病困扰
发布时间：2015/09/21
中低收入国家饱受食源性疾病困扰
作者：Lydia Zuraw, 时间：2015年9月17日 来源：food safety news
每年全球范围内有几千万食源性疾病案例，花费上千万美元。人们认为中低收入国家首当其冲。
证据受限，但作者新发表的一报告认为事实却是如此，因为中低收入国家常常报道备受食源性疾病伤害，如食源性疾病导致高腹泻患病率，缺乏干净水资源以清洁食物及器皿，农业中使用城市污水或动物粪便等。
报告文献综述部分由国际家畜研究所Delia Grace撰写，受英国国际发展部门委托，并发表在《全球环境研究及公众健康》期刊。
中低收入国家，如中国、肯尼亚、越南、印度等国的食品体系常常分割成多个不正规的部门，这样导致监管难，并且大量大型公司有意逃避监管。并且政府部门存在的众多问题也阻碍着食品安全监管。
报告指出，最近研究表明，发展中国家消费者关注食源性疾病。随着新技术的发展及食品体系治理力度的加大，食品安全问题可得到改善。
有趣的是，报告指出食源性疾病对妇女的恢复力及易损性有重要影响。Grace提出众多关于性别及食品安全的研究对疾病预防有重要作用。此外，因为提高食品安全标准可能会取消差的生产商，但加强预防并不会如此。
“有效的、可持续的、可扩展的预防措施可改善国内市场食品安全状况，但证据有限。”Grace写道，“培训农民合理运用及具备良好的实践能力可受惠其自身，但目前这一措施并未得以持续及拓展，除非良好的实践能力同出口资格相挂钩。”
至于食源性疾病的根源，答案是“易于染病及低估”。微生物致病体是大多食源性疾病的原因，其中寄生虫是导致疾病的重要原因。
传统上，大部分腹泻是因饮用不健康水，但是40%的腹泻不是因为水质问题，其中一部分是因为食物。
海产品食物中毒、非法酒及食物掺假也是中低收入国家食源性疾病的原因。
Grace写道，大部分食源性疾病是因为新鲜的、易腐食品在非正规市场销售。中低收入国家居民可能或多或少会吃到一些，但这些食物上细菌会更多。
而且，肉类食品貌似是食源性疾病死亡的强有力的预测指标。100人中，肉类食品每增加100公吨，食源性疾病所造成的死亡率增加6%。
Grace写道，因为某些中低收入国家消费有风险的食品量不断增长，加之食品供应链加长，食源性疾病在这些国家有增长趋势。环境变化可能也会对食源性疾病有影响。
Low- and Middle-Income Countries
Suffer Most From Foodborne Illness
BY
LYDIA ZURAW | SEPTEMBER 17, 2015
There are hundreds of millions of
cases of foodborne illness worldwide every year, costing billions of dollars.
It’s believed that low- and middle-income countries bear the brunt of these
illnesses.
Evidence is limited, but the author
of a new report believes this to be the case because of the high level of
hazards often reported in these countries, the high prevalence of foodborne
pathogens in surveys of people with diarrhea, the lack of clean water for
washing food and utensils, and the use of human sewage or animal waste in
agriculture.
The literature review was written by Delia
Grace of the International Livestock Research Institute. It was commissioned by
the U.K.’s Department of International Development and published in the
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
Food systems in low- and middle-income
countries, such as China, Kenya, Vietnam and India, are often fragmented into a
majority of informal actors that are difficult to monitor and a few large
companies that have incentives to escape regulation. And there are plenty of
governmental challenges that impede food safety.
Recent studies suggest that consumers
in developing countries are concerned with foodborne disease. This, along with
new technologies and an increased emphasis on food system governance, can
improve food safety, the report states.
One interesting point of the report
was that foodborne disease can have important impacts on women’s resilience and
vulnerability. Grace suggested that more research on the gender and food safety
is important for designing interventions. And because there is a risk that
increasing food safety standards can displace poor producers, interventions
should not be anti-poor.
“There is limited evidence
on effective, sustainable and scalable interventions to improve food safety in
domestic markets,” Grace wrote. “Training farmers on input use and good
practices often benefits those farmers trained, but has not been scalable or
sustainable, except where good practices are linked to eligibility for export.”
As for the source of foodborne
diseases, the information is “prone to error and under-estimation.” Microbial
pathogens are responsible for the majority, but parasites are an important
cause of disease.
Traditionally, most diarrhea has been
attributed to unsafe water, but as much as 40 percent of these illnesses can’t
be attributed to water, and a certain portion of them due to food.
Seafood poisoning, illicit alcohol,
and food adulteration are some of the other sources of illness in low- and
middle-income countries.
Grace wrote that most foodborne
illnesses are caused by fresh, perishable foods sold in informal markets. Low-
and middle-income countries might eat less of it, but it’s more contaminated.
And meat consumption seems to be a
strong predictor of foodborne illness deaths. One cross-country found that for
every additional metric ton of meat consumed per 100 people, foodborne illness
mortality increased by 6 percent.
Grace noted that foodborne illnesses
are likely to increase in some low- and middle-income countries because of
increased consumption of risky foods and lengthening food supply chains.
Climate change could also have an impact.