Food-borne illnesses often arise from a failure to follow basic hygiene rules when preparing raw, unpackaged products. People across the supply chain, including consumers, need to be educated about the risks and about how they can help themselves and others.

The World Health Organisation estimates that food and waterborne diarrhoeal diseases kill about two million people annually, mostly in developing countries.

Since 2013, Nestlé has opened advanced laboratories to study food-borne viruses.

“Most people are not aware of the amount of work that goes into ensuring that the food they eat is safe. It’s only when something goes wrong that they sit up and take notice. As an industry, we have a responsibility to address the incidence of food-borne infection,” says John O’Brien, head of the Food Safety and Integrity Research Programme at Nestlé’s international research centre.

We have a responsibility to address the incidence of food-borne infection

The company’s labs have a high level of ‘bio-containment’, with sealed areas restricted to trained personnel. Nestlé uses highly sophisticated technology to rapidly test for a wide range of micro-organisms and substances that are harmful to human health. The company carries out 100 million tests a year on its products, including 1.5 million for salmonella alone.

Over the years, the industry approach to food safety has moved from looking for defects in finished products, to trying to identify their root cause as early as possible in the supply chain.

Nestlé says it has many stringent, in-built controls to guarantee safety, from raw material selection through to processing and packaging. It has an early warning system to help it pinpoint signals that may develop into issues.

But control is not always easy in the long, complex supply chains of international food trade, especially when the product is no longer in the supply system of Nestlé.

For more information, log on to www.nestle.com.mt.