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I'm Alberto Mantovani.
I'm Italian, and
I'm a veterinarian.
I've worked almost 25 years
in the field of food safety.
My expertise is mainly in
toxicology and food safety.
I will talk more, in general,
on food safety and
public health,
why we bother about
food and food safety
when dealing with public health.
I'm a member of the Italian
National Food Safety Committee.
I'm still an expert at FAO
and the European Food
Safety Authority.
All these experiences,
the national, international,
and European experiences
that I will quote several
times during my presentation,
provided me an outlook
of food safety
well beyond my specialized
field of toxicology.
I'll try, in fact, to show you
that food safety is
a fantastic field
for interdisciplinary and
transdisciplinary cooperation
in order to achieve
public health objectives.
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Let's look at what
is food safety
in the WHO, World Health
Organization, website.
First of all, it's plainly said
that safe and nutritious food
is the key to
promote good health.
Interdisciplinary
approach is required,
because hazards are numerous
and diverse from bacteria,
but also chemicals or allergens.
And there are more than
200 food-related diseases
recognized by the WHO,
starting from the very
acute, like diarrheas,
to the very chronic and life
threatening like cancers.
What's the impact?
I'm just quoting numbers
from the WHO website,
600 million ill cases after eating
contaminated food each year,
according to an estimate
a few years ago.
Four hundred and twenty
thousand deaths each year,
and the loss of 33 million healthy
life years, which is a lot.
Food safety, nutrition,
and food security,
which is the
availability of food,
are closely linked,
because unsafe food which is
less available for people
creates a vicious cycle of
disease and malnutrition.
Malnutrition does
contribute more to
food safety hazard,
and this particularly
affects vulnerable groups
like the elderly, the sick,
and especially our future
infants and young children.
Again, there's an
impact on food safety
from the socio-economic
scenario,
because safe food supports
national economies.
No problem in food supply.
Less problem in
trade and tourists.
People are more confident
in coming to your country
and eating at restaurants.
Therefore, it's a stimulus
to sustainable development.
There are a number, and
we will mention them,
of planetary drivers that
are changing the scenario
of food safety.
The globalization of food trade.
We will see it again.
The world population growth,
so more people wishing
to eat more proteins,
wishing to have more calories,
and basically, more
people in our world,
so more need for safe food.
Climate changes that are
changing the scenario
and the rapidly
changing food system.
