[Nutrition and consumer health protection]

Most individuals in our population consume healthy food. The conditions for doing so exist, i.e. an offer of a wealth of foods in the market. Yet there is still a need for joint action by science and research, food industry and government. When looking more closely, it will be seen that there are gaps in the health protection of the consumer: Wrong nutrition and overfeeding must be controlled by improved education. By doing so, it should be possible, at the same time to reduce the incidence of food-associated diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer and metabolic disorders. While in this field of the protection of consumer health, so-called "visible" shortcomings of food intake are involved which can be influenced by nutritional medicine and the consumer, there are "hidden" ones if a contamination by infectious agents such as Salmonella bacteria or by chemical residues of e.g. heavy metals, pesticides, or additives is involved. This means that the consumer is unable to protect him/herself against the latter by his/her own means. For this reason, a particular responsibility has arisen for governmental authorities, to ward off risks arising from hidden shortcomings of food. A particular urgency has been found to exist for measures to eliminate pathogenic microorganisms from the food chain. Still, Salmonella bacteria are the most prominent target. There is a ratio of ca. 2/1 between salmonellosis and other forms of acute gastroenteric infections which are reportable under the Federal Communicable Diseases Act. On the whole, bacterial food poisoning is still on the rise, thus becoming the main problem of present-day control of communicable diseases. We should not be deceived by numerous improvements of technological and hygienic processes in the production of foods: in a long-term view, relief can be expected only from the creation of livestock which is free from infectious agents. Although a further reduction of chemical residues in certain foods has been achieved, it will remain a permanent task for government institutions to ensure that stipulated maximal amounts of foreign substances are not reached on a permanent basis and that, wherever possible, undesirable chemical residues are removed from the food chain. Cases of acute intoxication from chemical residues have remained single events. Nevertheless, there is a deficit of knowledge what concerns the toxicological and health evaluation of minimal levels of 1 microgram and less to which consumers have been exposed over years.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)