| Increasingly, society is becoming aware of how the food we eat affects our lives. The connection between fatty foods, refined carbohydrates and heart disease, diabetes and obesity is already well-established. Scientists are now finding causal and preventative relationships between our diet and other health issues. These findings are important not only because they impact our quality of life but also because they hold potential to bring health care costs under control--an issue of concern for individuals, families, businesses and governments. Other aspects of the food - health connection are also gaining attention including the need to reduce pesticides in the production of food, the need to prevent the spread of disease-causing organisms during the processing and handling of food and the need to safeguard our food sources from possible threat.
This awareness of how food and health are linked is contributing to new research and development efforts in universities, industries, and governments in areas such as new crop identification, the production and improvement of crops with health promoting constituents, the development of processing practices that conserve nutritional components, and the inspection, labeling and preparation of foods.
Promoting Safe and Healthy Foods is a CFANS priority. | 
