Basic introduction to food safety

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Food Safety & Quality

Food Safety
 Safety is the state of being safe.
 The condition of being safe; freedom from danger or
harm.
 Food Safety is a scientific discipline describing handling,
preparation and storage of food in ways that prevent food
borne illness. This includes a number of routines that
should be followed to avoid potentially severe health
hazards.
 Food Safety is an essential public health issues for all
countries.
 Microbiological & chemical contamination in food is a
major cause of illness.

Cont…
 Food borne disease remains a real and formidable
problem in both developed and developing countries,
causing great human suffering and significant
economic losses.
 Up to 1/3rd of the population of developed countries
is affected by food borne disease each year, and the
problem is likely to be even more widespread in
developing countries.
 Food can transmit disease from person to person as
well as serve as a growth medium for bacteria that
can cause food poisoning.

Food Hazards & Risks
 Food borne disease or injury occurs when a person
consumes food that contains pathogenic disease causing
microorganisms, harmful chemicals or hard foreign
objects that can cause choking injury to the mouth, or
other internal injury.
 The amount of contamination depends on what the food
acquires during growing, harvesting, processing by the
manufacturer, handling by the distributor and during
storage.
 In order to make sure that no one is made seriously ill,
hazards must be prevented and/or controlled through
correct knowledge of how to safely grow, harvest,
slaughter, deliver, handle, prepare, serve and store food
ingredients and products.

Hazards associated with foods can be classified as
 I) Chemical Hazards
 II) Physical Hazards
 III) Microbiological Hazards
 IV) Nutrition-related diseases
I) Chemical Hazards:- A chemical hazard is any substance
that can cause health problem when ingested or inhaled. They
include toxins, dangerous chemicals, residue of excess
chemicals used in processing food products.

Types
 I) Naturally occurring:- these are toxins produced by plants, animals or
microorganisms (e.g., aflatoxins in mushrooms, scrombotoxins in fish).
 ii) Intentionally added:- These are chemicals added to food that are
beyond the acceptable limits established By Food & Drug Act & it's
regulations (e.g., food additives like Sodium nitrate).
 iii) Unintentional added:- These are chemicals that accidentally
contaminate food being processed (e.g. sanitation or maintenance
chemicals, pesticides or environmental pollutants).
 iv) Food allergens:- These substances in food can cause a dangerous
reaction in people who are allergic (e.g. peanuts, fish, dairy products etc).
 RISKS
Chemical hazard may lead to acute food borne illness or chemical
poisoning may lead to acute food borne illness or chemical poisoning.
These illnesses can be caused when abnormally high doses of chemicals are
consumed. Symptoms of chemical poisoning include nausea, abdominal
pain, chest pain, muscular weakness.

II) Physical Hazards
 are either foreign materials unintentionally introduced to
the food products (e.g. metal fragments in minced meat)
or naturally occurring objects (e.g. bones in fish) that are
a threat to the consumer.
 A physical hazard can enter a food at any stage of
production. Hard or sharp objects are potential physical
hazards are potential physical hazards and can cause cut
so the mouth or throat; damage to the intestine; damage
to teeth/ gums.

III) Microbiological Hazards
 Truly, no raw fresh food can be considered safe. Microbial
contamination of food is not new. Food has been
contaminated from the dawn of history. Microbiologically,
raw food can be absolutely safe if it is handled correctly.
 Microorganisms on food can be reduced by pasteurizing
(heating), by acidifying food by a fermentation process or
adding sufficient amount of acid (lemon juice or vinegar) to
food or by washing.
 The five classes of microbiological pathogens are:
1) Bacteria
2) Viruses
3) Yeasts
4) Molds
5) Protozoa

Food Hygiene
 Hygiene is an essential part of healthy living. Not just
selecting the right food choices but also cooking and
consuming them in a hygienic way is equally important in
preventing the infectious diseases. Hazard Analysis Critical
Control Point (HACCP) is a system which identifies,
evaluates, and controls hazards which are significant for
food safety.

 The five key principles of food hygiene, according to
WHO, are:-
1) prevent contaminating food with pathogens spreading
from people, pests and pets.
2) separate raw and cooked foods to prevent
contaminating the cooked foods.
3) cook foods for the appropriate length of time and at
the appropriate temperature to kill pathogens
4) store food at the proper temperature
5) use safe water.

Basic introduction to food safety

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