Question

All of us need food and water to live and survive. Describe how communities and individuals ensure the quality of both food and water. What steps can be taken to make sure both the food and water and safe to consume? What current issues have arisen in the past few years (think states, cities, towns, restaurants, etc.)

Answer 1

Ans) The current US system for food safety:

- Has many of the attributes of an effective system;
- is a complex, interrelated activity involving government at all levels, the food industry from farm and sea to table, universities, the media, and the consumer;
- is moving toward a more science-based approach with HACCP and with risk-based assessment;
- is limited by statute in implementing practices and enforcement that are based in science; and
- is fragmented by having 12 primary federal agencies involved in key functions of safety: monitoring, surveillance, inspection, enforcement, outbreak management, research, and education.

- When certain disease-causing bacteria, viruses or parasite contaminate food, they can cause food-related diseases. Another word for such a bacterium, virus, or parasite is “pathogen”.

- Since food-related diseases can be serious, or even fatal, it is important to know and practice safe food-handling behaviors to help reduce the risk of getting sick from contaminated food.

- According to the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC), “food safety is the assurance that food will not cause harm to the consumer when it is prepared and/or eaten according to its intended use”. Foodborne diseases are widespread throughout the world.

- The process by which a foodborne disease spreads begins with the features of the disease, contaminating the food, which in turn threatens both individual and public health by means of the foods. Healthy, or what can be termed as safe food, is food that has not lost its nutritional value, that is clean, in physical, chemical and microbiological terms and that is not stale.

- The factors causing the contamination of the food may threaten the safe consumption of it and thereby make the foods harmful to human health. For this reason, it is necessary to utilize various resources to prevent the food from being contaminated in all stages of the food chain, from harvest to consumption. The aim of this chapter is to determine the factors affecting food safety and proffer effective intervention strategies against food-related diseases.