Foodborne Disease and Food Safety: What’s the Fit with Food Systems?
Each year, over 4 million Canadians develop a new infection because of the food they eat. Although many of these infections resolve without treatment, the associated costs are over $400 million annually, and serious consequences such as paralysis, miscarriage, chronic bowel impacts, and death can occur. In response, public health has evolved a set of activities aimed at identifying, and where possible preemptively intervening, at points across the food system where the microorganisms that cause foodborne disease could be introduced or multiply within food products.