Consuming food or drink that is contaminated with pathogens or toxic substances can make you sick, so ensuring that the food that people eat is both nutritious and safe is an important focus for the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), reflecting the theme of World Health Day 2015 – food safety.

Most of us have experienced ‘food poisoning’ at some stage and put it down to ‘something I ate’, and unless the symptoms are severe, we do not usually consult a doctor and this contributes to under-reporting of food-borne diseases.