Food intro

• Importance of Food Hygiene and Safety:

  • Safety and sanitation in the food service industry involve storing foods to keep them safe from contamination, preparing foods to minimize contamination, following proper cleaning protocols, and creating a safe workplace for food handlers
• Good food safety and hygiene practices are important to ensure food safety and prevent harmful bacteria from causing food poisoning
• Food poisoning is common and can lead to thousands of reported cases yearly
• Food Safety:

  • Defines as the absence or safe levels of hazards in food that may harm consumers
  • Refers to reducing the harmful impact of food-borne illnesses through maintaining hygiene and sanitation during harvest, processing, storage, distribution, preparation, and consumption
• Food Hygiene:

  • Conditions and measures necessary to ensure the safety and suitability of food at all stages of the food chain
  • Responsible preparation and presentation of food by protecting it from contaminations, preventing bacterial growth, and properly cooking and processing food
• Food Hygiene vs. Safety:

  • Food safety includes all important practices for ensuring food is fit for consumption
  • Food hygiene is a subcategory of food safety and focuses on measures and conditions needed to ensure food safety in all stages of the food supply chain
• 10 Main Elements of Food Hygiene:

  • Maintaining excellent personal hygiene, including wearing clean protective clothing and washing hands regularly
  • Following cleaning procedures for kitchenware, equipment, and the kitchen itself
  • Preventing cross-contamination by avoiding transferring food safety hazards from contaminated surfaces to non-contaminated ones
• Importance of food safety:

  • Ensure food security, reduce health costs from food-related diseases, reduce the risk of food-borne diseases, and preserve food quality
• Food Safety & Quality System:

  • Food businesses build their reputation by meeting food safety and quality responsibilities through assurance systems like Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP)
• Food Quality:

  • A complex characteristic of foods that determines its value and acceptability by consumers
  • A measure of excellence or being free from defects, deficiencies, and significant variations
• Food safety is part of food quality:

  • Safety is the most critical component of food quality to ensure food is free from contaminants that can harm consumers
• Effects of poor food safety:

  • Pose a threat to public health safety and economic development, increase health costs, lead to high prevalence of diseases, and decrease nutrients in food
• Sources of contamination:

  • Bacterial multiplication in the danger zone of 5-63°C where bacteria grow most readily
• Key food safety issues:

  • Addressing issues like hygiene of eating establishments, residue of veterinary drugs, excessive use of pesticides, and more
• Other issues:

  • Legislation, harmonization with international standards, review of national standards, and adapting to new technologies and hazards
• Industry challenges:

  • Compliance with importing country standards, changing food regulations, multiple levels of regulations, and the need for a commitment to food safety in food establishments