We have been involved in the research of viruses that infect humans and are transmitted by what we call the fecal-oral route, because this transmission is a very common problem. There are many different viruses that can be transmitted via this route, and they cause lots of different diseases. With our ever-changing behavior, the spread of such viruses can be quite rapid, and can move freely across the world. We travel a lot, and so does our food. Therefore, the diseases from all over the world may literally end up on our plate. That's why it is important to know what can happen if there is a contamination problem. Our work has focused on studying the role of enteric viruses as causes of illnesses in humans. We use molecular techniques to figure out if outbreaks of illness in different countries may be linked.

This paper is not a new discovery or methodology, but what we did is try to summarize what we think is the essential information for people who are interested in the control and prevention of food-borne viral infections. There are many pathogens that can be transmitted via food and cause illnesses in humans. People in the food industry, food microbiology, food production, etc., are quite aware of the importance of food hygiene practices, but they generally have information and training on bacteria only as contaminants. From our work in public health, we know that a lot of food-borne illnesses are caused by a different class of pathogens—the viruses. We noticed that much less is known about how to control viruses as contaminants. It also is clear that that the way food quality is measured does not reliably predict the absence of viruses. Therefore, there is a data gap: we know—and many food producers and food industries also know—that, although there is a problem with food-borne viruses, there are no clear guidelines on what to do about it.

In this paper, we reviewed the literature on food-borne viruses, based on what we knew but also only after discussions with persons working in food production and food handling. I think that the most useful exercise was that we took a list of products and procedures that may be used during the production and handling of food, and then asked the following question: If the food would contain viruses at the start of the processing, would these viruses survive and be able to cause illness in the consumer?

Based on our review of the literature and our own experience, we scored whether the risk to public health would be low, medium, or high. Clearly, this is not "the definitive truth" but should be seen as a starting point for addressing the issue of controlling foodborne viral infections.