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Review
. 2024 Mar 2;14(5):786.
doi: 10.3390/ani14050786.

Pre-Harvest Food Safety Challenges in Food-Animal Production in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Eyasu T Seyoum  1 , Tadesse Eguale  1 , Ihab Habib  2   3   4 , Celso J B Oliveira  1   5 , Daniel F M Monte  5 , Baowei Yang  6 , Wondwossen A Gebreyes  1   7 , Walid Q Alali  8
Affiliations
Review

Pre-Harvest Food Safety Challenges in Food-Animal Production in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Eyasu T Seyoum et al. Animals (Basel). .

Abstract

Food safety remains a significant global public health concern, with the risk of unsafe food varying worldwide. The economies of several low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) heavily rely on livestock, posing a challenge to ensuring the production of safe food. This review discusses our understanding of pre-harvest critical issues related to food safety in LMICs, specifically focusing on animal-derived food. In LMICs, food safety regulations are weak and inadequately enforced, primarily concentrating on the formal market despite a substantial portion of the food sector being dominated by informal markets. Key critical issues at the farm level include animal health, a low level of good agriculture practices, and the misuse of antimicrobials. Effectively addressing foodborne diseases requires a comprehensive One Health framework. Unfortunately, the application of the One Health approach to tackle food safety issues is notably limited in LMICs. In conclusion, considering that most animal-source foods from LMICs are marketed through informal channels, food safety legislation and policies need to account for this context. Interventions aimed at reducing foodborne bacterial pathogens at the farm level should be scalable, and there should be strong advocacy for the proper implementation of pre-harvest interventions through a One Health approach.

Keywords: AMR; LMICs; food safety; interventions; pre-harvest.

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Conflict of interest statement

Eyasu Tigabu Seyoum is from the company “Global One Health Initiative of the Ohio State University, East African Regional Office, GOH LLC Ethiopia, Addis Ababa”, and Tadesse Eguale is from “Ohio State Global One Health”, but the authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Example of three main line ministries with a legal mandate on food safety in Ethiopia [32].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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