[People are always saying...].

Abstract

In his address, delivered on the occasion of his farewell as extraordinary professor of food microbiology and hygiene at the University of Agriculture in Wageningen, the author discussed a number of features of current problems in the field of disease caused by foods. It was pointed out that the risks constituted by chemicals and additives in foods are usually strongly exaggerated by consumers, whereas there is far too little understanding of and information concerning infectious diseases which are transmissible to man by foods. As regards this last-mentioned fact, attention is drawn to the increase, and that which can be anticipated, of cases of food infection and poisoning in Europe. It was stressed that the consumer is an important factor in regard to these forms of disease in view of the fact that a large proportion of these infections may be prevented by a number of relatively simple measures such as cooling or heating of food and adequate hygiene in the kitchen.