A novel approach in public health surveillance: searching the illegal dairy trade in Facebook

This paper uses the internet-based biosurveillance to describe the Brazilian e-commerce of non-inspected dairy products and maps its traditional sale in a medium-sized city (Londrina). We searched the sales of illegal dairy products on Facebook Marketplace and conducted a census of street markets and a random sample of formal markets. Although prohibited in Brazil, consumers can easily find informal dairy products on internet and retail sale. In addition, 7% of the food products hold a false label to mimic food inspection. The e-commerce was linked with regions with higher access to technology and Human Development Index (HDI). We believe that our approach shows a step forward in the public health interventions and could be replicated stimulating debates about policies required to improve the public health surveillance.