Addressing another threat to food safety: Conflict

Abstract

Conflicts across the globe affect food security and also have a heavy toll on food safety. Many of the areas affected by conflict are breadbaskets for multiple countries. When the production of staple crops is compromised by diverse conflicts, it becomes necessary to grow them somewhere else to satisfy local, regional, and/or international requirements. However, if that production is done in tropical and subtropical zones, it must be done incorporating strategies to prevent mycotoxin contamination, which has negative health, social, and economic impacts. Otherwise, increased production of susceptible crops in mycotoxin-prone areas may augment the already occurring negative impacts, which are severe in the global south.