Food producers all over the world bear a major social responsibility: to care for the health of consumers. Millions of people get sick every year from eating contaminated food, and – according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) – producers must play an essential role in preventing this scourge.

For instance, in 2011, Europe came under alert due to an outbreak of the disease known as “E. Coli”, an abbreviation of its full name, “Escherichia Coli.” This microorganism lives in human and animal intestines and generally causes no problems.

However, Medline Plus explains that “some types of E. Coli can make you sick and cause diarrhea. One type causes travelers' diarrhea. The worst type of E. coli causes bloody diarrhea and kidney failure, which can be fatal. This is most likely to occur in children and in adults with weak immune systems.”

In fact, according to figures provided by the WHO, a strain of the disease triggers Haemolytic Uraemic Syndrome (HUS), a disease that causes the death of 380,000 children under five and 200 million episodes of diarrhea in children and adults each year.

According to FAO, “a wide range of foods may be a vehicle for pathogenic E. coli, contaminated during growth and harvest (horticulture products), collection (milk), or slaughter (meat). Further contamination can occur during post-harvest handling, transport, processing and unhygienic food handling during preparation.”

Factors contributing to the persistence of E. coli in food systems include inadequate control of processing parameters (e.g. cooking temperature, pH value, water activity and storage at warm temperatures for sufficient time to allow growth). FAO further provides several examples of food that can be contaminated: raw or under-processed meat (fermented meat, undercooked ground beef, etc.), unpasteurized dairy products (cheese, milk, etc.), unpasteurized fruit juices and raw vegetables (sprouts, seeds, lettuce, spinach, cantaloupe, mushrooms, etc.).

Human and animal feces. Since the bacterium lives within the intestinal tract of living beings, if hands are not washed properly or if irrigation water is contaminated through contact with fecal waste, or if natural fertilizers from animal excrement is used, among other factors, it can spread and be highly contaminant.

The disease causes the death of 380,000 children under five, and 200 million episodes of diarrhea in children and adults

In other words, a person can become infected from eating undercooked meat (bacteria are killed at a cooking temperature of 70 degrees) or badly washed vegetables, from contact with the bacteria in bathrooms and kitchens that have not been properly cleaned, or it can spread from person to person when someone does not wash his or her hands thoroughly after using the bathroom.

The international community has implemented several measures to avoid the spread of the bacteria, which mainly affects countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa. Maged Younes, Director of Food Safety at the World Health Organization, explains that “while there are many international standards and mechanisms in place - mostly enshrined in the Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Program (Codex Alimentarius) - problems can still arise.

There are several reasons for this, such as a breach in hygiene practices, a breakdown in processing equipment, an extreme weather event or deliberate tampering, to name a few. This is why food safety authorities need to remain vigilant and have enough resources to carry out the necessary inspections to enforce regulations and ensure safe practices in food production and distribution.”

Meanwhile, the Food and Agriculture Organization has created best practices guides for producers to help prevent foodborne illness, which can be accessed through this link. For meat products “the strategies that reduce the spread of the bacteria in live animals offer methods to reduce pathogen populations in food animals before they enter the food chain.” In this regard, FAO suggests several technical strategies related with the animals’ diet.

While in the field of agriculture, “appropriate on-farm manure storage and handling procedures from farms are important. In addition, proper crop management can reduce some of the factors associated with E. coli populations and should reduce the risks of epidemics in humans. Scientific findings reveal that it is possible to reduce the survival and growth of E. coli populations in crops by adopting good agricultural practices.”