Sweeping changes to SA’s food safety standards could be in the offing, says WHO official
London — A huge and deadly outbreak of listeria in SA could alter the country’s approach to food-borne disease and prompt improvements in food safety standards, a leading health official said on Friday. The World Health Organisation’s (WHO’s) top specialist on global food safety likened the South African outbreak’s potential impact to the "mad cow disease" BSE crisis in Europe, which began in the 1980s, and a vast E coli outbreak traced to Jack in the Box burgers in the US in 1993. "I’m convinced we’re going to be talking about this outbreak for the next 20 years," Peter Ben Embarek, who manages the WHO International Food Safety Authorities Network, said. "This could be the crisis that will finally make at least SA — and possibly the whole of Africa — realise the importance of food safety and food-borne diseases and the need to invest in improving things." At least 180 people have died in SA since the outbreak began and almost 1,000 have been infected in the world’s worst recorded l...
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