# Pre-Harvest Food Safety Challenges in Food-Animal Production in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

## TL;DR

This paper reviews pre-harvest food safety challenges in low- and middle-income countries, focusing on animal-derived foods and the need for scalable solutions and better enforcement.

## Contribution

The paper highlights the limitations of current food safety interventions and regulations in LMICs and advocates for a One Health approach to address these issues.

## Key findings

- Food safety regulations in LMICs are weak and poorly enforced, especially in informal markets.
- Antimicrobial misuse and poor animal health practices are major pre-harvest risks.
- A One Health approach is underutilized in LMICs despite its potential to improve food safety.

## Abstract

Consuming unsafe food globally results in millions of illnesses and deaths. The safety of our food, from farm (pre-harvest) to table (postharvest), is paramount. In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), ensuring food safety is challenging. This review explores current insights into pre-harvest critical issues related to food safety. At the farm level, critical food safety issues include animal health, antimicrobial resistance, and farmers’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices. Globally, several pre-harvest interventions aim to mitigate risks from animal-origin food. Despite effectiveness at a small scale, these interventions often lack scalability. Many countries have established laws and regulations to shield consumers from unsafe food consumption. However, food safety regulations in several LMICs are weak, inconsistent, and inadequately enforced. Preventing foodborne diseases requires a One Health approach, uniting experts in animal, human, and environmental health. Despite its importance, the application of this approach to address food safety issues is limited in low- and middle-income countries.

Food safety remains a significant global public health concern, with the risk of unsafe food varying worldwide. The economies of several low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) heavily rely on livestock, posing a challenge to ensuring the production of safe food. This review discusses our understanding of pre-harvest critical issues related to food safety in LMICs, specifically focusing on animal-derived food. In LMICs, food safety regulations are weak and inadequately enforced, primarily concentrating on the formal market despite a substantial portion of the food sector being dominated by informal markets. Key critical issues at the farm level include animal health, a low level of good agriculture practices, and the misuse of antimicrobials. Effectively addressing foodborne diseases requires a comprehensive One Health framework. Unfortunately, the application of the One Health approach to tackle food safety issues is notably limited in LMICs. In conclusion, considering that most animal-source foods from LMICs are marketed through informal channels, food safety legislation and policies need to account for this context. Interventions aimed at reducing foodborne bacterial pathogens at the farm level should be scalable, and there should be strong advocacy for the proper implementation of pre-harvest interventions through a One Health approach.