SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC-ASPECTS OF FOOD-BORNE DISEASE

Concerns about the current increase in food-borne disease of microbial origin and the principal agents concerned, including salmonella infection, are described. The mechanisms by which information about food-borne illness is obtained in England and Wales and selected countries in Europe and North America, and the trends identified by these data, are compared. An assessment of the impact of salmonellosis in England and Wales in terms of the costs of illness to the public sector and society in general, including estimates of production loss due to sickness-related absence from work, are presented.