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the source of the problem. In With acrylamide, when it Sweden, itwas lowerthan O.1 international food safety
this way, we will obtain better came out five years ago, one %; Sweden said to the Danish crisis. When this happens, we
and more sustainable of the big problems was-it's producers of poulhy, we will send out information to the
solutions. going to be difficult to tell not buy your chickens countries that maybe affected
people what to do, because because of the risk of salmo- by that emergency. For
Q: Is there a connection we cannot suggest an nella. So Denmark, after instance, in the USA a year
between the food people alternative to French fries, some tg decided to do ago there was an episode
eat and the development potato chips, certain breads, something about it. Today inyolving the contamination
of cancer? coffee and other foods they are down to 1%. When of spinach with E. coli.
containing acrylamide. the Danes started to do some- Information about this was
Yes! I mentioned acrylamide, thing about the salrnonella sent out to all the member
but a number of other For instance, if we say that problem, they also documen- states of INFOSAN, enabling
substances exist in food. French fries contain ted it very carefully. So the preventive action and recalls -
Again we do not have very acrylamide, this does not Danish example is a good - if necessary. We report
good data, and investigating necessarily mean that you one, and now we are getting about ten or twenty such
cancer-causing substances is w'll develop cancer if you eat other examples that can be cases of international
a lot more difficult than French fries. But, if you take used for other countries. You significance every year.
showing that you have a big group of people who can do something about the
salmonella in eggs. If a per- have eaten foods with high salmonellaproblem, butthere Q: Would you like to
son falls ill from salmonella, levels of acrylarnide, and the are othermicroorganisms that expand INFOSAN
you can detect the salrnonella same number of people who you can do something about. further?
in the body (if the doctor ate foods with low levels of However, you fuast have to
sends in a sample to the Jab.). acrylamide-you will see a think about what the problem Yes, we would! But, it's a
If a person gets cancer, it is difference in the cancer rate is or analyse it. You must find question of resources. For the
very difficult to find out between the two groups. out where it comes from and time being there is only a
which specific substance (if However, these are difficult then work out the smartest "half-person" working on
any) causedit. Howeverthere investigations as the numbers way to solve it. We have INFOSAN...
are some scientists that are of "tested" subjects has to be noted that progress is being
knowledgeable in this field, high. It is like the tobacco made, and that things are Leaving Dr Schlundt's office,
and they say that up to 10% tests that were caied out a indeed happening. we are a litkle wiser perhaps,
or maybe even one-third of few years ago. If you only but defu'iitely more concer-
cancers can be related to food compare 100 persons, you do Q: If I want to find out ned ... We only hope that
consurnphon. not find a clear result. It is where I can get this INFOSAN will obtain all the
only when you compare high information on the web, necessai'y funds to develop its
I mentioned substances other niunbers over a period of where can I look? activities :[urther so that we
than acrylamide. For instan- titne that you will be able to can receive more infornnation
ce, if you grill a steak for too see the difference. All that I have been talking and become more oriented
long, it gets black. And it is about, you can actually find towards "a healthier life".
this black part of the meat Acrylamide has been shown on the web: www.who.inV
that contains cancer-causing to cause cancer in animals, foodsafety. On the web you For er infomafion you
substances. Thus, we know and new epidemiological can also find reference to our can see their website at:
that a number of cancers are data comparing big groups of new network for the Food www.who.int/foodsafety/en
caused by food, and we also cancer patients seems to Safety authorities in the
lmow that we can do some- show that it also causes world called INFOSAN. It
thing about this problem in cancer in human beings. I can was set up in 2005 so it is
the future. see the trend, but it's different fairly new, and we think it's a
in different areas. I talked partial success. To date we
Q: So why is it not being earlier about salmonella. I have 165 members out of the
done now? can see the trend of 193 WHO Member States. It
salmonella in a number of still doesn't fiinction
Well, again there are different countries, and we in WHO optimally since the only
reasons. If we talk about the are saying to some of these information going into the
grill and the grilling of meat, countries that you shouldtake network comes from WHO,
one reason is that we are your good example and show whereas in the future we
talking about a change in atti- it to the whole world. would hope that the
tude-making people grill infornnation will also come
meat in a different way. So it's The Danes had the best from Member States
about educating people. Food example of how you can deal themselves.
safety authorities are ti'y'ng to with salmonella in chicken.
do that in some countries. Fifteen years ago, in a An important park of INFO-
Sometimes they succeed, chicken farm in Denmark SAN is what we call "INFO-
sometimes they don't. you would find that 40 % of SAN emergency", which is
the birds had salmonella. In activated when there is an
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