**5. Concluding remarks**

Food poisoning is a significant cause of both short-term and long-term morbidity; it is equally a cause of observed and insidious morbidity. While short-term consequences of food poisoning include hospitalisations, out-of-pocket expenses, loss of productivity and deaths; its long-term consequences include dreadful diseases, such as cancers, birth defects and more indirect deaths.

For this reason, the contribution of the human element in the occurrence of food poisoning is worrying, particularly because of the existence of unsafe harvesting, uncaring handling, unhygienic food-serving facilities, unhealthy processing practices and criminal use of foods. Yet all these issues and practices can be addressed with available technologies, systems and evidence-based practices within the national and international regulatory frameworks.

Given the reliance of the human race on foods for its survival and the fact that every food that humans eat comes ultimately from the natural environment; the implementation of hygienic and safe food handling practices and the preservation of all fauna and flora ecosystems as well as environmental media, namely air, soil and water, is not only a necessity but a shared responsibility that each human being should shoulder every day in the way he or she lives, make decisions and eat.
