1 In the modern world, we do not usually spend much time thinking about the safety of the food we eat. We have refrigerators, good quality cooking equipment, and supermarkets and food companies that we trust. There is a global network of food transportation that moves the food we eat quickly and efficiently around the world. We think we are safe. The safety of the food we eat may have been an issue for our ancestors; refrigeration has only been around since the past century, and in times before that, people found other ways of preserving food, such as salting or smoking the food. But for the present day population, food safety is not an issue, right? Wrong.
2 Every year, millions of people around the world become ill because of eating unsafe food. Many of these people die. There are more than 200 diseases known to be spread through unsafe food and water. The number of people infected by these diseases increases each year due to global networks of food production and delivery. It is estimated that 75% of all new infectious human diseases originally come from animals. Many of these diseases are spread to humans through the way the animals are treated in the food production chain.