Preface

Food-borne diseases are the major causes of morbidity and mortality in the world. It is esti‐ mated that about 2.2 million people, a majority of whom are children living in developing countries, die yearly due to food and water contamination. Typhoid fever occurs in 16.6 mil‐ lion people and causes 600,000 deaths every year around the world. Even in the developed countries where food hygiene and laws are enforced, food-borne diseases are a major public health concern. For instance, in the United States, contaminated foods are responsible for near‐ ly 76 million infections, 325,000 hospital cases and 5000 deaths every year. While in the devel‐ oping countries, particularly Sub-Saharan Africa, the food safety issues are exacerbated by food shortage such that even visibly mouldy and spoiled foods are consumed. Food safety and consequently food security are therefore of immense importance to public health, international trade and world economy.

The book, which has 10 chapters, provides information on the incidence, health implications and effective prevention and control strategies of food-related diseases. Hence, the book will be of importance to undergraduate and postgraduate students, educators and researchers in the fields of life sciences, medicine, agriculture, food science and technology, trade and eco‐ nomics. Policy makers and regulatory officers in food industry can acquire substantial knowl‐ edge from the book, which will be useful in the course of their duties. The first chapter provides information on the factors that propagate common pathogens encountered in the food industry and proffers hygienic practices for their elimination from the food chain. While the second chapter reviews the risk factors enhancing microbial contamination in food service centres, the third chapter explains the risk factors associated with food poisoning in Africa as well as describing the short- and long-term public health impacts of food-borne diseases in the continent. The two subsequent chapters critically analyse the potential exposure and risk asso‐ ciated with metal contamination of food and current technologies in detecting botulinum neu‐ rotoxins in foods, respectively. Chapters 6, 7, 8 and 9 discuss the epidemiology, prevention and control of cholera, staphylococcal food poisoning and *Toxoplasma* gondii and prion diseas‐ es in the food value chain, respectively. The last chapter gives important information on effec‐ tive techniques for extraction, as well as chemical composition and antimicrobial activity of herbal extracts use in preventing food-borne diseases.

It is our hope that this book will provide valuable information to researchers, policy makers and regulatory officers in the food industry and will be used as a specialized reference and text book. The contributions of all the authors are highly appreciated without which the book would have not been a reality. I also wish to express my sincere gratitude to my wife, Evelyn Pambelo Hussaini, for her encouragement during the course of the work. Finally, the authors and editor wish to express our appreciation to InTech for publishing the book.

> **Professor Hussaini Anthony Makun** Department of Biochemistry, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Nigeria
