What is food safety
Food safety is the extent to which those requirements relating specifically to characteristics or
properties that have the potential to be harmful to health or to cause illness
or injury are met.
Some food quality characteristics (e.g., counts of total
bacteria, coliform bacteria) can be used as indicators of food safety, although
they are not considered specifically as food safety characteristics. A food that
does not conform to the food safety requirements automatically does not conform
to the food quality requirements. On the other hand, a food can conform to the
food safety requirements, but not conform to the other quality
requirements.
Why food safety
Food safety is important for all! Click on the link below to find out why!
Who is responsible for safety?
Just like quality, safety is a responsibility of all people
on the food chain, not just the manufacture.
How can food become unsafe?
Food can become unsafe through many ways:
Enhancing food safety
Food safety can be enhanced through a number of ways:
- Food processing and preservation – food is processed to not only make it more palatable, nutritious, increase its shelf life but also to make it safe for consumption.
- Quality and safety management systems implementation – Today there are established safety management systems that can be implemented to enhance safety and assure the consumer of quality and safety. Such systems include the implementation of HACCP, ISO 22000 among other systems.