Food safety in the modern world has become a decidedly complex affair. Global supply chains are now more the norm than the exception and no longer apply only in rich countries. “Today, global food supply chains could involve as many as 30 to 40 links in the food chain,” reports food quality management and food safety specialist Dr Juliane O’Hagan. (Food safety, which is concerned with ensuring food is safe to eat, should not be confused with food security, which is about the availability of food and access to it.)

“Because of the complexity of global food supply chains, when something goes wrong, it is sometimes difficult to trace back the origin and quality and even the type of food – for example, horsemeat can end up being marketed as beef,” she points out. “The different links in the food chain often communicate poorly with each other. The final retailer has no contact with the original producer.”

Supply chains of basic foodstuffs like unprocessed meat, fresh fruit or vegetables can be relatively straightforward, with only a few links. The chains get considerably more complex when dealing with pre-prepared meals. These often contain a meat, more than one vegetable, flour, starch, oil, meat and/or vegetable stock, several spices and a number of additives and preservatives, all of which could come from different suppliers in different countries and all of which could go through several links in separate food chains before ending up in the meal sitting on the supermarket shelf or in the fridge.

“Even such an apparently simple meal as instant noodles could have ingredients from widely differing places,” she says. And, indeed, the most recent major international food safety scare involved instant noodles in India – the Maggi brand, produced by Nestlé. The sale of these was banned in that country in early June by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), because of high levels of lead found in some samples during tests and because the product contained undeclared monosodium glutamate.

Perhaps ironically, at the beginning of July the UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA), following the testing of some 900 samples, found that Maggi noodles, including those manufactured in India and imported into the UK, were safe for people to eat. “The FSA can confirm that results from testing samples of Maggi noodles in the UK have all found that levels of lead in the product is [sic] well within European Union permissible levels and would not be a concern to consumers,” said the agency in a statement.

Nevertheless, Nestlé has had to destroy instant noodles worth more than $50-million in India. Nor has the damage been restricted to this one company. Following the ban on Nestlé’s product, two other major brands of instant noodles (Knorr and Top Ramen) were withdrawn from sale, pending testing and approval by the FSSAI. The case highlights the complexity, seriousness and emotional nature of food safety today.

Of course, emerging market economies like South Africa also have informal and semiformal food markets, supplying the poorer members of society. Here, the inculcation of simple procedures would be most beneficial. “Even in the informal sector, vendors should be educated to wash their hands between the handling of meat and money or waste, keep the meat clean and separated from any other food item as well as keep the meat in the shade,” she observes. “This would significantly increase food safety.”