Flattening the curve on foodborne illness and its costs in Africa (AG Health)

AG Health republished a blog post from Steven Jaffee and Delia Grace. The authors stated that recent research has shown that the health and economic consequences of foodborne diseases in Africa are significant and growing, as urbanization and income growth prompt dietary changes that increasingly expose consumers to food safety hazards. A ‘business as usual’ approach to food safety, involving a combination of post-outbreak firefighting and fragmented regulatory and ad hoc interventions, will do little to check the threats posed by unsafe food in many African countries. The good news is that many of these problems can be controlled and their costs reduced. A combination of incremental and systematic measures, well within the capacity of most governments, can flatten the curve of foodborne illness. This blogpost is based on a chapter, Why food safety matters to Africa: Making the case for policy action in the 2020 Annual trends and outlook report: Sustaining Africa’s agrifood system transformation: The role of public policies.