ABSTRACT
Food poisoning is one of the major public health problems. Prevention is better than cure. Prevention of food poisoning is a hardly achievable goal, if we misunderstand the complex causality of food poisoning. For example, food hygiene and food safety are essential components of prevention of food poisoning, but not all of the components. Especially a viewpoint of public health is needed to the prevention of food poisoning. I described the conceptual model of prevention of food poisoning; the primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention of food poisoning at the individual level and at the population level. In case of primary prevention strategy, I applied the epidemiologic triangle model to explore the causality of food poisoning. I found that the both secondary and tertiary prevention activities at the population level had been very poor. However, these activities are enormously important to the prevention and control of food poisoning. We should develop an integrated strategy for the prevention of food poisoning at the multi-disciplinary level, especially public health.