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Introduction:

Food safety is an essential public health issue for all countries. In recent years a number of extremely outbreaks of foodborne diseases have occurred. Many of these outbreaks have involved more than one country, and some more than one continent. Policy-makers and consumers in many countries are re-evaluating their strategy for food safety and the international aspects of public health within that strategy. In every part of the world people wage a constant battle against food contamination, foodborne diseases, and food wastage. Efforts to reduce these survival- threatening, devastating consequences of food contamination certainly started in prehistoric times. Cooking, smoking and simple sun drying were probably the first method used. Other more sophisticated technologies came along like fermentation and canning. More recently, advanced technologies in food preservation and packaging have been developed to make our food safer. However, despite these advanced in food science and technology, the safety of our food supply is at the beginning of the third millennium, still a cause of concern.

Definition of food safety:

The term “safe food” represents different ideals to different audiences. Consumers, special interest groups, regulators, industry, and academia will have their unique descriptions based on their perspectives. Much of the information the general public receives about food safety comes through the media. For this reason, media perspectives on the safety of the food supply can influence those of the general public.

On the other hand, the terms food safety and food quality can sometimes be confusing. Food safety refers to all those hazards, whether chronic or acute, that may make food injurious to the health of the consumer. It is not negotiable. Quality includes all other attributes that influence a product’s value to the consumer. This includes negative attributes such as spoilage, contamination with filth, discoloration, off-odors and positive attributes such as the origin, color, flavor, texture and processing method of the food. This distinction between safety and quality has implications for public policy and influences the nature and content of the food control system most suited to meet predetermined national objectives.

Food safety is used as a scientific discipline describing handling, preparation, and storage of food in ways that prevent food-borne illness. It also referred to the conditions and practices that preserve the quality of food to prevent contamination and food-borne illness. While FAO defined the food safety is about handling, storing, and preparing food to prevent infection and to help make sure that our food keeps enough nutrients for us to have healthy diet.

Why food safety is important to public health:

• More than 200 diseases are spread through foods: 1 of 10 people fall ill every year from eating contaminated food, and 240,000 people die each year as a result. Children under 5 years of age are at particularly high risk, with some 125,000 young children dying from food-borne disease every year.
• Contaminated food can cause long-term health problems: the most common symptoms of food-borne diseases are stomach pains, vomiting and diarrhea. Food contaminated with heavy metals or with naturally occurring toxins can also cause long-term health problems including cancer and neurological disorders.
• Foodborne diseases affect vulnerable people harder than other groups: infections caused by contaminated food have a much higher impact on populations with poor or fragile health status and can easily lead to serious illness and deaths. For infants, pregnant women, the sick and the elderly, the consequences of food borne disease are usually more severe and may be fatal.
• There are many opportunities for food contamination to take place: today`s food supply is a complex and involves a range of different stages including on- farm production, slaughtering or harvesting, processing, storage, transport and distribution before the food reaches the consumers.
• Globalization make food safety more complex and essential: globalization of food production and trade in making the food chain longer and complicates food borne disease outbreak investigation and product recall in case of emergency.
• Food safety is multisectoral and multidisciplinary: to improve food safety, multitude of different professionals is working together, making use of the best a available science and technologies. Different governmental departments and agencies, encompassing public health, agriculture, education and trade, need to collaborate and communicate with each other and engage with the civil society including consumer groups.
• Food contamination also affect the economy and society as a whole: food contamination has far reaching effects beyond direct public health consequences- it undermines food exports ,tourism, livelihood of food handlers and economic development, both in developed and developing countries.
• Some harmful bacteria are becoming resistant to drug treatments: antimicrobial resistance is a growing global health concern. Overuse and misuse of antimicrobials in agriculture and animal husbandry, in addition to human clinical uses, is one of the factors leading to the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance. Antimicrobial-resistant bacteria in animals may be transmitted to human via foods.
• Everybody has a role to play in keeping food safe: food safety sharing responsibilities between governments, industry, producers, academia, and consumers. Everyone has a role to play. Achieving food safety is a multi-sectoral efforts requiring expertise from a range of different disciplines- toxicological, microbiology, parasitology, nutrition, health economics. and human and veterinary medicine, local communities, women`s groups and school education also play an important role.
• Consumers must be well informed on food safety practices: people should make informed and wise food choices and adapt adequate behaviors. They should know common food hazards and how to handle food safety, using the information provided in food labeling.

How did food become unsafe?

Food can become contaminated at any point during production, distribution, and prepration. Everyone along the production chain, from producer to consumer, has a role to play to ensure the food we eat does not cause diseases.

No one likes experiencing nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, or abdominal pain, but according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention*, an estimated 48 million people in the US get sick from a foodborne illness every year. This results in 128,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths. Since children under 5 have less-developed immune systems and lower body weights, they experience high rates of food-borne illnesses. People can become ill from foodborne illnesses in a number of ways.

• Biological contaminants, which include bacteria, viruses, parasites, toxins, and fungi, can grow in foods that are not kept at proper temperatures. Some of these bacteria are familiar to you from the news – Salmonella, E Coli, Listeria. Food left out at room temperature allows bacteria to grow to levels that can cause illness. Avoid the ‘Danger Zone” (temperatures between 40°F to 140°F) where bacteria multiply and grow faster.
• Chemical and physical contaminants can also cause foodborne illnesses. Chemical elements include cleaning products and pesticides that may contain harmful ingredients. Physical contaminants include glass, wood, hair, and metal, among others. If you drop a jar of jelly on the floor and it cracks or breaks, don’t try to save any of the jelly as there may be tiny pieces of glass in it.
• Cross-contamination is the unintentional transfer of contaminants to a food, a food preparation surface, or an object such as a knife. Cross-contamination also occurs when one food gets contaminated with traces of other foods in processing plants. For example, if someone cooked fish sticks in oil using a deep fryer they should not cook French fries in that same oil. The fries will get contaminated with traces of seafood left in the oil and this might cause an allergic reaction to someone allergic to seafood.

Often, contaminated food does not look bad or spoiled and does not taste different. This makes it more difficult to identify when food has been contaminated and may make us or others sick.

Food safety basic principles:

Every food Establishment uses, processes, and sells food in different ways. However, the general issues and key principles of food safety remain the same, whatever the style of the operation. All food safety training programs should contain the “big three” factors that could cause food to become unsafe. Food must be kept out of harm’s way from human errors, but if you don’t train food workers what they are, they won’t know why these factors are so important to your operation. The basics can make us or break us in one or maybe two food handling mistakes. Those basic three principles that we must train all managers and food workers about are:

• Personal Hygiene for Food Professionals
• Time & Temperature Control
• Cross-contamination Prevention

Professional Personal Hygiene:

It’s not all common sense to everyone. Food workers must observe the highest possible standards of personal hygiene to make certain that food does not become contaminated by pathogenic microorganisms, physical or chemical hazards. High standards of personal hygiene also play an important part in creating a good public image, as well as protecting food. Hand washing, fingernails, food worker illness policy (including exclusion of ill workers, cuts, burns, bandages, etc.), hair, uniforms, glove use, jewellery, personal cleanliness, or unsanitary habits such as eating, drinking, smoking, or spitting are all parts of defining personal hygiene standards. Poor hand washing is one of the leading causes of foodborne illness. “Active Hand Hygiene” is a concept that really helps. There is a benefit to writing down standard operating procedures for the correct hand washing method / safe hands procedure to follow when each crewmember is trained about this crucial expectation in your facility.

Time & Temperature Control of Foods:

We can reduce bacterial growth in potentially hazardous foods by limiting the time food is in the danger zone (140° F to 41° F) during any steps of the food flow from receiving through service. The FDA Food Code recommendation no more than a cumulative 4 hours in the danger zone. Use a calibrated thermometer to chart time and temperature based upon your menu for: cold holding (41° F), hot holding (140° F), cooking (based on the food), reheating (165° F), and cooling. Rapid cooling of hot foods (leftovers) or foods cooked several hours advance of service is a special challenge, which allows a six-hour two stage cooling method.

Cross-contamination Prevention:

This is simply the transfer of harmful microorganisms or substances to food and covers a multitude of potential food handling errors in all stages of food flow. Cross contamination can occur at any time.

The three routes:

1) food to food,

2) hands to food, or

3) equipment to food. Ready-to-eat foods must receive the most care to prevent contamination.

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