From Farm to Plate, Make Food Safe
QA 15/04_A
From Farm to Plate, Make Food Safe
World Health Day was celebrated on 7 April 2015, with the Work Health Organisation highlighting the challenges and opportunities associated with food safety under the above slogan.
With the globalisation of food production and export/import of food products, a local food safety problem can rapidly become an international emergency, as evidenced by the recent Frozen Berry contamination issue. Investigation of an outbreak of foodborne disease or determining the source of the outbreak is vastly more complicated when a single product or package of food contains ingredients from multiple sources and been through various processes ie salad mixes etc.
Unsafe food can contain harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites or chemical substances, and cause more than 200 diseases. Examples of unsafe food can include undercooked foods or animal origin or even fruits and vegetables contaminated with faeces.
The World Health Organisation has released some findings from what is a broad ongoing analysis of foodborne diseases, which will be released in October 2015. Globally the disease agents responsible for the most deaths were Salmonella, E Coli and Norovirus, accounting for a third of 351,000 deaths as a result of foodborne diseases.
With even one death being too many, they are trying to drive collective government, business and public action to safeguard against these preventable diseases as a result of chemical or microbial contamination of food. We can all begin by practicing safe food hygiene and learning how to take care when cooking specific foods that may pose a risk if not treated properly. For example, raw chicken and undercooked chicken, storage and use of raw eggs in dressings and washing and preparing fruit and vegetables to avoid any potential contamination that may be present.
It often takes a crisis, as we have experience lately regarding a number of food poisoning occurences in Australia, for a collective consciousness on food safety to be stirred and any serious response to be taken. Food Safety is a shared responsibility that requires participation at all levels of the supply chain – as the slogan says ‘From Farm to Plate, Make Food Safe’ – what does your business have in place to ensure the produce they sell?
If your business needs any assistance in implementing a food safety or quality assurance program, please contact Simmone Porter or Karen Doran on 3915 4222 or [email protected].