Categorizing Food Related Illness: Have We Got It Right?

Abstract

Since the 1950s food safety hazards have been categorized simply as (micro) biological, chemical or physical hazards with no clear differentiation between those that cause acute and chronic harm. Indeed international risk assessment methods, including hazard analysis critical control point (HACCP) use these criteria. However, the spectrum of food related illness continues to grow now encompassing food allergy and intolerance, obesity, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, cancer as well as food poisoning, foodborne illness and food contamination. Therefore over a half-century later is this the time to redefine the spectrum of what constitutes food related illness? This paper considers whether such "redefinition" of food related intoxicating and infectious agents would provide more targeted policy instruments and lead to better risk assessment and thus mitigation of such risk within the food supply chain.

The Evolution and Cultural Framing of Food Safety Management Systems—Where From and Where Next?

“…The Campden BRI Guide G42 (Gaze & Campden BRI, ; ) expands on this tri‐categorization to include food allergens as a fourth category. Mortimore and Wallace (; ; ) use the CAC () categories, and include allergens within the category of a chemical hazard (Luning & Marcelis, ; Manning, ). Further to the above definitions, BRC (, p. 112) has an evolved definition for a hazard as being an agent of any type with the potential to cause harm (usually, biological, chemical, physical, or radiological), thus no longer differentiating allergens as a separate category but including the new category of radiological hazards that is gaining wider industry attention.…”

“…Commonly, the term food poisoning focuses on notions of toxicity specifically, that is, the agent that causes food poisoning being a toxin of either a microbiological origin or other source, whereas foodborne disease or foodborne illness are broader terms relating to infection and/or toxicity. Manning () suggests that chronic non‐communicable diseases (NCDs) such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, cancers, and illnesses associated with accumulative toxicity could be revisited within organizational hazard assessment. Thus, based on Manning's () definition, illness, poisoning, or intoxication associated with food can be redefined as being:

“ a health disorder with symptoms of either of short [acute] or long [chronic] term duration with a specific onset period that is induced by consuming food that is contaminated by biological organisms or agents that have the ability to invade host cells and/or produce toxins once ingested, or food that contains toxic material at the time of consumption, or by consuming an unbalanced diet over a prolonged period of time, leading to over and under nutrition .”

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“…Commonly, the term food poisoning focuses on notions of toxicity specifically, that is, the agent that causes food poisoning being a toxin of either a microbiological origin or other source, whereas foodborne disease or foodborne illness are broader terms relating to infection and/or toxicity. Manning (2017a) suggests that chronic noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, cancers, and illnesses associated with accumulative toxicity could be revisited within organizational hazard assessment.…”

“…Thus, based on Manning's (2017a) definition, illness, poisoning, or intoxication associated with food can be redefined as being:…”

Intestinal immunostimulatory activity of neutral polysaccharide isolated from traditionally fermented Korean brown rice vinegar

“…It is a prominent part of the immune system and the most crucial signaling transduction and exchanging system within the body; it works as a neuroendocrine sensor as well as an immunological response and presenting system. 7,8) The immune system of the GI tract is referred to as the gut-associated lymphoid tissue (GALT), which is the largest meeting place of lymphoid tissues in the body, consisting of organized lymphoid tissue and mucosal epithelium. 9) A key strategy to defense immune system in the GI tract is through the production of immunoglobulin A (IgA).…”