Food safety and the behavioural sciences

Abstract

International health programmes have been a major stimulus to the development of several specialties collectively known as medical behavioural science. Each new programme of the international and national agencies has led to an expansion of the areas of behavioural scientists in health research. This may also be expected from WHO's Food Safety Programme; its activities, and the findings contained in the report of a recently held meeting of a Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Safety, are bringing to light the need for, and the opportunities in, behavioural science research on food safety. Although significant behavioural research has been done in nutrition and the treatment of diarrhoeal diseases, almost no attention has been paid to the ways in which food is rendered unsafe for human consumption or to the ways in which food safety can be increased. Suggestions are made as to the kinds of research needed, the data that must be gathered, and the ways in which, especially through health education, this information can be made operational.