The Importance Of Food Safety

Food Safety

Food safety is one of the global concerns of people on their everyday life. Food can become contaminated at any point, during production, processing, purchasing or preparation. Food safety is a leading responsibility of food business operators. Poor food handling might cause diseases and contamination by bacteria, pathogen and viruses when you did not reach the exact temperature of a certain food, when you store food at the wrong place and temperature, improperly handled or cooked.

The disease that is carried by food or commonly known as the food-borne illness is one the food safety issues that emerged recently, and is caused by consuming contaminated food. Consumers do not take these cases seriously especially when the food was prepared inside their houses. They will probably ignore proper handling of food not unless they felt any of the symptoms. This disease cannot be transmitted from person to person. Thus, it is not contagious. The common symptoms of food-borne illness or food poisoning are vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, stomach cramps, fever, muscle aches and any sign of dehydration.

Basically, mishandling food may occur if we did not prepare it properly. First, we should not consolidate different kinds of food in one place, particularly proteins, together with leafy vegetables. We should separate their chopping boards by color coding, or if you only have one, you must clean and sanitize it before and after using when you are going to use it with another kind of food. Not maintaining personal hygiene, like washing your hands if necessary, removing jewelry, wearing personal protecting equipment, you have a high possibility to contaminate food, it is either physical, biological or chemical hazard.

Improper thawing is considered as mishandling of food because there are proper ways to thaw frozen meats. Do not let it melt at room temperature, there is this procedure that when you get the frozen meat in the freezer, you will put it inside the chiller for a few hours. You can also thaw frozen meats through cold running water, never ever soak and stay it in still tap water. Bacteria on meat might spread and multiply, as they multiply, they produce poisons in the meat that cause illness. Tasting food to see if it is still can be eaten, it is not required for us to taste food to see if it has spoiled. We can’t taste, smell nor see bacteria through our naked eye. Not reheating food properly. We follow a specific temperature when reheating food and it is 165°F. Not storing food appropriately.

If food is not stored properly, it can become spoiled with germs. Several germs can cause more serious problem such as blood infection and kidney failure. Leaving cooked, raw and refrigerated food at room temperature for 2 hours is not recommended. You must maintain their safe temperature, if not, bacteria will spread faster and get spoiled easily. Filipino family has this habitual procedure of rinsing raw meats and poultry before cooking. This can never be right. You have to cook it thoroughly. Rinsing or washing the meat before cooking will only spread bacteria around your sink and kitchen. Do not rely on tasting and smelling the food, it will not satisfy you if you’re going to check your food through smell or taste. Undercooking meats, poultry, seafood, and eggs. They have the individual temperature for them to be cooked. 160°F is the right temperature for meats and eggs, 165°F for poultry, and 145°F for seafood.

Food Safety Act of 2013 or Republic Act no.10611 is the law that you are going to violate if you did not follow food safety standards in the Philippines. This law will ensure that the food safety is achieve and people will get protected and not get harm. The food business operators, a person engaged in the food business, including one’s staff, shall have the main responsibility to guarantee that the food satisfies the requirements of food law relevant to their activities in the food supply chain and that control system are in place to prevent, eliminate or reduce risks to consumers. The Department of Agriculture is responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, and food. They are also responsible for food safety in the primary production and post-harvest stages of food supply chain. Food safety violation includes, serving improperly cooked food, serving food that has expired, serving meals that has an object in the food or physical contamination, distributing or serving contaminated food, serving alcohol to minors or persons with alcohol allergies, or failing to meet state or city public health inspection standards.

There are a lot of ways to ensure food safety and prevent spreading of bacteria on food. Pest control plays an important part on food safety. Troublesome insects such as cockroaches and flies can help spread diseases which can lead to the development of food-borne illnesses. Cleaning, sanitizing and disinfecting your area is also important. Before purchasing food and receiving them, you must check your kitchen area if it is already clean and sanitize. Kitchens rely on the use of potentially dangerous chemicals for sanitation and pest control. Because of this attention has to be applied to reduce the risk of accidental environmental contamination during the food processing cycle. Also for the tools, equipment and fixed equipment, you must sanitize them before and after using. Personal hygiene is a must. Food safety starts to yourself, you should check yourself first before touching food. Wash your hands for 20 seconds, if necessary wash your hands to your elbow, change a pair of plastic gloves whenever you are doing another task or if you are using it continuously, change your gloves every after 4 hours of using it, disposed it properl. Use specific chopping board for particular food, avoid sneezing and coughing using your hand. If it is irresistible, use your arm instead. Installing the correct facilities for staff to ensure proper personal hygiene is met contributes towards meeting food safety requirements.

Purchasing, receiving and storing is a must when you ordered food from a certain establishment. When purchasing, if it is perishable check if the food you is not spoiled or decayed. If it is some kind of staple food, check the expiration date, if there is no dent or not bloated. When receiving, always make sure that you have checked if the food that delivered was safe, seal is not broken, there is no moist visible on the packaging, cans has no dents or not bloated. Food packaging plays an important role as a physical barrier to protect food from damage, contamination and tampering during transport and storage. Many foods also need protection from moisture, air or light to keep them fresh and safe to eat for longer, and even simple packaging materials like glass, plastics and paper can do a lot to improve safety and extend shelf-life. You should know where to store different kind of food, and what is their safe temperature for them to preserve their freshness and texture. For the production, if you are one of the workers, you should follow the rules and regulations of the company to avoid food hazards.

The most important goal of food safety is for consumers to be safe while enjoying their food and satisfying their cravings, which the consumers are also “us”. Food is very important for us and it may cause us healthier or death.