SURVEILLANCE AND EPIDEMIOLOGY OF FOODBORNE ILLNESS IN NSW, AUSTRALIA

Reliable information on the incidence and causes of foodborne illness is essential for public health policy makers and the food industry. Le t me illustrate.A Regulatory Impact Statement prepared prior to the ad option of NSW Food Regulation 1992 and amendment of the Food Standards Code (Adoption) Regulation 1989 under the NSW Food Act 1989 was unabl e to provide a cost-benefit analysis of the proposed regulatory change s, ''...not only because of the absence of adequate data to determine the overall impact of the costs of the proposed 1992 regulation, but b ecause it is impossible to determine the benefits in terms of an antic ipated reduction in the incidence of foodborne disease in NSW. This ar ises primarily because of the absence of data on the incidence of food bome disease by type and origin together with the absence of any data on the costs of treatment and time off worK.'' Similarly the National Food Authority (1994) circulated a discussion paper which proposes cha nges to the regulation of food handling and hygiene that will have sig nificant impact on all levels of the food industry in Australia if imp lemented. The document states: ''In Keeping with other industrialised countries, Australia has experienced an increase in reported food-born e illness (particularly campylobacteriosis) in recent years. It is not clear whether this represents a real increase in incidence, improved reporting or a combination of the two. Factors contributing to the mos t-common causes of foodborne illness are consistently identified as: f ood prepared in advance and then not-handled or stored under safe cond itions;cross contamination between raw and ready to eat food; and brea kdown in personal hygiene'' The document does not however provide any relevant data to support these statements. I am not criticising the Na tional Food Authority but emphasizing how important are accurate data on the incidence and causes of foodborne illness for policy makers and consequently the whole food industry. Data on the incidence and cause s of foodborne illness are used to: locate the sources and causes so a s to implement immediate remedial measures to curtail outbreaks; provi de information on new, emerging or changing causes of foodborne illnes s; survey disease patterns, local, national and international; provide a resource for food industry for the conduct of good manufacturing, f ood handling and risk assessment practices based on scientific princip les; allocate appropriate resources to surveillance and educational ac tivities; initiate surveillance, educational and other intervention st rategies which will have measurable health outcomes; develop regulator y mechanisms based on scientific data.