Food Safety: A Health Issue

Food safety

A major Health Issue

What is Food Safety?

Food Safety is all conditions and actions necessary to ensure the safety of food at all stages. This refers to the conditions and practices to prevent contamination and food-borne illnesses. (FDA) Food safety is an essential health function. Food can be contaminated and judged unsafe in many ways. Contamination can occur during the packaging process, by inadequate cooking or storage. Also, different food products may already have different microorganisms such as bacteria or parasites which may be allowed to multiply and cause disease if food is not appropriately handled.

With regard to whether or not food safety is currently a problem the answer is clearly, yes. The concern is that daily, people get sick with what is interchangeably called food-borne disease or illness from the food they eat. Specifically, food-borne illness has a severe affect on infants, young children, the elderly and the sick. In both developing and developed countries, it is a strain on health care systems.(CDC) Not only does food-borne illness affect physical condition, but economically, individuals, communities, businesses, and countries are effected by food safety problems. Every continent currently faces this problem. (WHO) Food production, processing, distribution, and preparation present challenges to food safety (WHO)

Data and Investigative Information

Being that food safety is an increasingly important public health issue, it is imperative that governments intensify their efforts to improve food safety. These efforts should be in response to an increasing number of food safety problems and rising consumer concerns. (WHO) The effect of food-borne illness is widespread, impacting the public globally. According to the World Health Organization in the USA approximately “76 million cases, resulting in 325,000 hospitalizations and 5000 deaths” (WHO) occur yearly in the United States. This is tremendous considering that many food safety issues are not reported. Salmonella, cholera, mad cow disease, and certain strains of E.coli have proven to have devastating effects on health.

The Food and Drug Administration acknowledges several risk factors that are directly associated with food-borne disease. Food source is one large factor in food safety. Food from a source that has not been inspected means condition of the food is unknown, with the possibility of being contaminated. Consequently, if the food is from an unapproved source and the necessity to track the food appears, this becomes a major problem. Inadequate cooking, including improper cooking and holding temperatures and poor personal hygiene are also risk factors. Environmental contamination which involves improper storage, labeling or chemical use, and possible presence of insects or rodents are significant issues, as well as cross contamination where equipment is not properly cleaned and raw meats are not separated from prepared food. (FDA)

In conjunction with the risk factors, there are several major food safety problems. Naturally occurring toxins, that are not clearly understood, have the ability to cause intoxications. In 1997 food-borne diseases caused by toxins, cost 35 billion dollars for the United States in both medical expenditures and lost productivity. (WHO) Lasting Organic Pollutants, caused by industrial byproducts and waste burning and Metals such as lead and mercury may contaminate food through pollution of water, air and soil.(WHO) These problems have the capacity to create a huge burden, both socially, and economically on communities and their health systems. Other challenges, which need to be addressed to help ensure food safety, include the globalization of trade in food, international travel, environmental pollution, as well as deliberate contamination. The food production chain has become more complex.

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