Ahead of official publication of their key recommendations, Professor Chris Elliott of Queen’s University Belfast, offers his initial insights into the Uganda food poisoning outbreak he and his team helped resolve.
Last week, The World Food Programme was fittingly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the commendable work it carries out which sees millions of hungry global citizens fed each year.
Last week, Queen’s University Belfast published a report which explained how we discovered the cause of a major food poisoning outbreak in Uganda that led to many hundreds to become ill and a number of tragic fatalities.
The food in this incident had been provided by the WFP; the cause of the crisis was a result of some toxic seeds from a plant called Jimsonweed which had accidentally entered a soy supply chain.
Here, I offer readers of New Food a preview of this study and our main findings.
Particularly in food destined for the developed world, there are a range of controls and checks put in place to ensure that it is safe and free from harmful levels of such contaminants.
These toxins are Tropane Alkaloids, which in the Uganda case, came from a plant known as Jimsonweed.
We believe strict maximum limits are unlikely to be attainable by many supply chains and may cause dire supply issues and huge impacts to farmers in the developing world.
Our second major finding involved looking at the link between pesticide use, the growing market in organic food, and some of the unintended consequences of market shifts.
Many consumers now demand no or very low levels of pesticides in their food.
We believe that the implementation of a range of control measures will help prevent the contamination of food with Tropane Alkaloids and the early detection of contaminated supply chains.
The tragic Ugandan case study should act as a stark warning to many in the agriculture and food industry, as well as regulators, that with changing demands for how food is produced, coupled with our rapidly changing climate, new food safety risks will undoubtedly emerge.