Farming First interviewed John McDermott, Director of the International Food Policy Research Institute’s Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH) to learn how the numerous challenges facing food safety in the developing world can be overcome.

Dr. McDermott explained that highly nutritious food such as legumes, fruits, fish and meat, can be dangerous in terms of food safety because they perish quickly, but a lot of basic things can be done to improve the way various actors in the food chain in the developing world handle these items safely, to avoid health issues for consumers.

In terms of future trends for food safety, Dr. McDermott noted that serious health problems are being caused not on the production side, but also on the consumption side. “This is going to take a fundamental restructuring on how we think about food systems” he commented. This will include consuming less salt, less sugar, paying more attention to quality and using less super-processing.

For more interviews with food and agriculture experts, visit the Farming First TV channel on YouTube.