World Food Safety Day 2021:History, Theme, Food-Borne Diseases & Safety Measures to Prevent them

The world Food Safety Day (WFSD) was first observed 3 years ago on 7th June 2019, so this year is the third anniversary of the World Food Safety Day. For the first time, World Food Safety Day was announced in December 2018 by the United Nations General Assembly. For smooth running, World Health Organization (WHO) in collaboration with the Food, Agriculture Organization (FAO) to the United Nations celebrates this day.

The purpose of observing the World Food Safety Day was to raise awareness for clean eating practices, maintain good hygiene and sanitation about food safety among individuals across the globe.

The theme of WFSD: In the last two years i.e., in 2019 and 2020, a theme was given by the WHO and by the FAO to celebrate this named 'Food Safety 'Everyone's Business that means food safety is a shared responsibility of every individual or between governments, producers and consumers. In 2020 due to the Coronavirus, World Food Safety Day was celebrated virtually. This year's theme is 'Safe Food Today for Healthy Tomorrow', which means if we kept our food safe today and ate clean, then we can spend a healthy life in our whole future, this theme also stresses that production and consumption of safe food have immediate and long-term benefits for people, the planet and the economy.

Impact/Burden of Food-Borne Diseases (FBD) on Human Health

Food poisoning is the main reason for food-borne diseases when microorganisms/pathogens like bacteria, viruses, and parasites enter the body from the contaminated food. These microorganisms appear directly at the intestinal wall and tissues, and it also has an inflammatory effect on the liver.

Bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Shigella, Salmonella, Salmonella typhi, Vibrio cholera, Campylobacter jejuni, E.Coli), Viruses (Norovirus, Hepatitis A and E, Rotavirus), and parasitic like (Entamoeba histolytica, roundworms, and Tapeworm) commonly found in Ham, potato, egg salad, mayonnaise, cream, pastries, Fried rice, Beef, legumes, gravies, unclean water, Meats, vegetables, dried beans, cereals, Shell-fish, unrefrigerated meat & poultry, Salad, cheese, meats, water, apple juice, raw milk, potato, egg salad, fruit/vegetables grown on land fertilized with animal waste and human sewage water badly affects human health. The incubation period of these microorganisms can be 6 hours to 36 hours. Some microorganism incubated for minutes also and after that these microorganisms start multiplication upon the intestinal lining and cause inflammation that can be severe with duration and time. Inflammations generated from this microorganism create very life-threatening symptoms like diarrhoea, vomiting, dysentery, nausea, intrinsic fever, gastroenteritis, abdominal pain/cramps, hepatitis A & E, greenish foul stools, fever, weakness, and drowsiness.

According to WHO 1, in 10 is around 600 million people suffer from food-borne illnesses and 420,000 people and 125,000 children under 5 years of age die globally.

Common Hazardous Foods:

Certain foods are considered high risk, and they need to be handled properly.

• Fishery (Fish, Algae)

• Raw milk / unpasteurized milk or anything containing dairy

• Raw eggs

• Cooked rice/fried rice & pasta

• Ready-packed salads

• Raw meats (Pork/Beef)

• Cream/Pastries

• Potato (Boiled)

All of these items should always be handled with an extra level of care.

How Food Can be Contaminated:

Food can be contaminated at any stage from the farming till you consume it. Food contamination is mainly of three types.

1. Biological contaminant – A type of microbial contaminant such as bacteria, fungi, parasitic, viruses etc.

2. Chemical contaminants – Use of any poisonous, type of metal, such as lead, mercury in food, use of insecticides, use of fertilizer, use of chemical adulterants, use of chemical preservatives.

3. Physical contaminants – hair, nails or any part of the food preparation that gets into the food while it is being prepared.

Five Main Safety Measures to Prevent Food-Borne Diseases:

1. Personal Cleanliness and Hygiene (It's important to maintain good hygiene)

Before eating food, always remember to wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water for 20 seconds, so that any kind of dust, dirt or grease or any kind of other harmful substances in the hands is spotless. So that cross-contamination can be prevented. Especially educate your children about this from the beginning and wash their hands thoroughly before eating so that the food eaten with their hands does not get contaminated and any type of bacteria, the virus cannot enter the body, and we can prevent infection.

2. Wash fruits and vegetables thoroughly:

Vegetables should always be washed before cutting. In this process, we can prevent cross-contamination and prevent nutrient losses. If fruits and vegetables are cut without cleaning, then the bacteria and viruses attached to the peel of fruits and vegetables enter inside them, as well as cleaning after cutting, many soluble nutrients are destroyed from the fruits and vegetables.

3. Keep cooked food and raw food separately:

Keep home-cooked, moist food, dry food, raw food or ready-to-eat food bought from the market separately so that you can prevent cross-contamination in the food items. Also, do not store home-cooked, moist food, dry food in the refrigerator together because if moist food gets spoiled, then dry food will also get spoiled along with it.

Pathogens naturally present in one food may be transferred to other foods during food preparation if the same cooking equipment and utensils are used without washing and disinfecting in between, especially in the case of ready-to-eat foods.

4. Take care of the right temperature:

While preparing and storing food, it should be kept in mind that you should cook the food at a proper temperature so that the microorganisms produced in the food are eliminated. Because at the right temperature any kind of pathogen gets eliminated. Store food at the right temperature.

Food held or stored at warm (10-50ºC) temperature allows multiplication of pathogens and is an important cause of foodborne outbreaks.

5. Before buying food, check the expiry date:

While buying any food item from the market, keep in mind that you have checked the expiry date. Written on the packet, properly. If the food item expires, then it may cause damage to the food and because stomach pain, vomiting, and other stomach-related problems may arise.