Environmental health officers play a vital role in policing the safety of our food chains, from ports of entry to spaza shop shelves, and are integral to the investigation into what lies behind the surge in reports of schoolchildren falling seriously ill after eating apparently contaminated snacks.

While it is not clear whether the number of reports is rising due to increased scrutiny or a widening crisis in SA’s food products, there is no question that these personnel are in desperately short supply...

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