Given the continued growth of trade agreements and exchanges between countries and the evolution of production methods to meet international market needs, our food supply has developed significantly over the last several decades. A wide array of our food products are made from ingredients and packaging sourced from different suppliers worldwide, resulting in rapid movements of food products and globalized food transport. The “international agro-food trade network,” constructed using the United Nations (UN)’s food-trade data, shows the dense web of food trade connections among seven central countries that trade with more than 77 percent of the 207 countries from which the UN gathers information.1 While this vast trade network enhances accessibility to food, considerable risks emerge with the amplified production and intensive handling of raw materials across the supply chain, further complicating the tracing of food sources or foodborne hazards in multiple actors’ global supply chain.
Indeed, a loss of control or oversight at any step of the supply chain could lead to detrimental economic and public health consequences. In 2011, one of the largest outbreaks of a foodborne illness was caused by enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli O104:H4. The deadly strain caused approximately 3,000 hospitalized cases, 855 of them due to hemolytic uremic syndrome. It also led to 55 deaths, primarily in Germany, with scattered cases in 15 other countries in Europe and North America. As the strain source was still unknown, the blame was falsely directed at Spanish cucumbers and tomatoes. Consequently, a Russian ban on imports of all European Union fresh produce, followed by the EU’s ban on the import and sale of fenugreek seeds, which was eventually shown to be the culprit, caused substantial economic losses to farmers and industries.2 Such an outbreak demonstrates how local infection agents can bring about widespread economic and health threat.