Culture, Values, and Food Safety.

The article focuses on the change in the attitudes of society toward food with the alteration in cultural conditions. These cultural conditions include increase in population, desire for variety in the diet, demand for processed and convenience items, increased alteration and fortification of chemical content of food for medical, nutritional, and aesthetic reasons. All these changes affect the balance of risks and benefits of food. According to scientist F. M. Strong, of all the hazards in the food supply, the most important natural food toxicants that have been identified as responsible for a major incidence of disease and death are the mycotoxins produced by imperfect fungi. The most feared of these mycotoxins are the aflatoxins, which were discovered in 1960-61.