World food safety day is marked every June 7th as decided by FAO and WHO as an awareness program to educate and enlighten on the causes and effects of foodborne risks, the main aim was to prevent, detect and manage harmful food risks.
Food safety is defined as the routines taken in food preparation, handling and storage meant to drastically reduce and curb foodborne illnesses and injury such as food poisoning or malnutrition.
Every stage of food production cycle usually involves food safety measures from preparation to production and finally storage.
Storage of food is essential as this will determine its shelf life and how long its potency will last.
Even processed food have to attain certain packaging standards to be considered safe for consumption. While raw and cooked food should be stored at the right temperatures in the refrigerator.
Food preparation from the farm to the kitchen, should be neat and both the hands used to prepare the meal and the raw materials ought to be washed thoroughly to safeguard against food poisoning by dirt or pesticides/fertilizers sprayed at the farm before harvest.
Cooking stations ought to be neat always and sanitized so as to make sure there will be no opportunity for infestation or unhygienic area of meal preparation.
For companies that produce packaged food, they mostly undergo monthly equipment and safety checks by food regulatory officers that determine if their services and products are still up to standard.
Temperature for meal preparation and storage is highly important, the result of negligence In that area would mean foods getting spoiled and heavy wastage which would in turn pollute the area. Recent studies show that one-quater of the food wasted yearly can save children who die of malnutrition around the world.
Food poisoning and foodborne illness most times go undetected especially in areas without access to good health care facilities that can immediately detect such situations after running a few tests on the individual and so more and more lives are lost to death as a result of unhygienic meals.
Areas where food is scarce suffer from all sorts of foodborne illnesses, their lack of access to fresh food, and nutritious meals causing them to eat whatever is available without paying mind to the risk involved.
Food safety affects the nation In the long term, and if strategies are put in place that ensure its promotion, then its benefits will be seen in such a nation overtime as there will be a drastic increase in the nation’s economy as its citizens will be healthy and safe.
There is a shared responsibility between the government, food producers and the general public which are the consumers to uphold the guiding principles of food safety measures which are. CLEAN meal preparation and production, SANITIZATION of work area and PROPER STORAGE.
Thus if all hands were to be on deck for this mission of ensuring food safety, there would be noticeable downsizing to life’s lost through foodborne risks.