The cyclosporiasis outbreak linked to fresh produce in the United States is raising concerns in Canada about the safety of imported food. While Canada has seen some recent cases of cyclosporiasis, officials say there is no link with the U.S. outbreak.

The outbreak has drawn attention to public health advice encouraging Canadians to consume fresh produce grown in Canada. While this advice isn’t new, the outbreak highlights two related but distinct issues: food safety, which focuses on reducing the risk of food-borne illness and preventing animal health diseases, and food security, which regards whether Canada’s food system can respond if demand for domestic products suddenly increased.

Canada is one of the world’s largest agricultural exporters. However, exporting food is not the same as having a food system that can withstand disruption. Canada’s food system depends on imported technologies and products such as fertilizers, veterinary medicines and machinery.

It also relies on concentrated domestic processing capacity, transportation networks and increasingly digitized infrastructure. When one part of that system is impacted, the effects can ripple through the rest.

Colleagues and I recently brought together researchers, industry leaders and policy experts to examine how Canada can better prepare its food system for an increasingly uncertain world. One conclusion that emerged repeatedly from our discussions is that food security is not only about affordability or production — it’s about resilience.

Food security and safety

My research examines how biological threats,........

© The Conversation