Food Safety and Quality Practices

Food plays as one of the indispensable part of people's life. Food is an essential prerequisite for life and as such the primary goal of eating and drinking is to enable the body to function normally. Access to good quality food has been man's endeavor from the earliest of human existence. We always look forward to the quality of food to assure its safety as its basic requirement. "Food safety" implies absence or acceptable and safe levels of contaminants, adulterants, naturally occurring toxins or any other substance that may make food injurious to health on an acute or chronic basis. Food safety is about handling, storing and preparing food to prevent infection and help to make sure that our food keeps enough nutrients for us to have a healthy diet. Unsafe food and water means that it has been exposed to dirt and germs, or may even be rotten, which can cause infections or diseases such as diarrhoea, meningitis, etc. These diseases can make people very sick or even be life threatening. When people are sick, they are weak and would have difficulty working or concentrating at school. Some of these infections also make it difficult for our bodies to absorb the nutrients they need to get healthy. Unsafe or stale foods also deteriorate and be of poor quality, which means they lose nutrients and so we do not get enough of what we need for a healthy diet. So unsafe food can also lead to poor nutrition. Foodborne illnesses are a burden on public health and contribute significantly to the cost of health care. A small percentage of these illnesses are the result of identified foodborne outbreaks, which happen when two or more cases of similar illnesses result from eating the same food. Investigations of foodborne outbreaks, along with analyses of data on the germs that make us sick and behaviors that contribute to food contamination, help us identify where we can make improvements in the country's food safety system. This system spans from growing the food on the farm through processing, packing, distribution, transportation, and storage, to preparing it to be eaten. Clean and safe food are very important to prevent germs from getting into foods and water. Such germs not only cause diseases, but they also destroy valuable nutrients in the food.