Yesterday was World Health Day – a World Health Organization (WHO) campaign with a focus, this year, on global food safety.  This year, much of the attention is being given to looking at how food safety is affected ‘from farm to plate.’ The WHO feature 10 facts on food safety:

1. More than 200 diseases are spread through food
2. Contaminated food can cause long-term health problems
3. Foodbourne diseases affect vulnerable people harder than other groups
4. There are many opportunities for food contamination to take place
5. Globilization makes food safety more complex and essential
6. Food safety is multisectoral and multidisciplinary
7. Food contamination also affects the economy and society as a whole
8. Some harmful bacteria are becoming resistant to drug treatment
9. Everybody has a role to play in keeping food safe
10. Consumers must be well informed on food safety practices

As a midwife, my first thought on reading this list, thinking particularly…