Food safety is the burden of every person

Food safety system include routine processes in the preparation, handling and storage of food from farm to fork to prevent foodborne illness and injury. Monitoring and evaluation of food in the production to consumption continuum has shown that the burden of food-borne diseases is largely from microbes of animal origin — biological agents — and chemical and physical contaminants.

The new coronavirus, which causes Covid-19, is a quiescent virus from possible animal reservoirs to a potentially fatal human pandemic. Similarly, a plethora of toxic and unregulated chemical contaminants in food is a cause of concern among consumers.

FOOD-BORNE ILLNESS

Although the objective of any food control system is to protect the public health by reducing the risk of food-borne illness, nations have encountered incidents due to lapses.

An effective and efficient system takes a thoroughly thought out anticipatory process rather than the traditional mechanistic reactive process of focusing on rectifying hazards in the finished food product.

Food embodies a discrete undertone of the culture, habit, religion and socioeconomic status of the people and represents a complex entity that has been, and is, in progressive evolution from ancient times as roots and wild berries to modern specialty and novelty foods and beyond. Therefore, the systems should evolve in tandem with food, through synergy of all the processes.

The stakeholders in prevention and control of food-borne diseases are supposed to look at the entire process carefully, evaluating all possible hazard critical control points for effective intervention mechanisms. This is a shared responsibility to ensure that the outcome is safe food for all.

EDUCATION

Being a technical domain and the stakeholders of diverse backgrounds, food control would benefit immensely from national standards implemented by competent authorities.

For the consumer to add value to the system, education and communication are crucial.

An integrated approach to food safety, on design and implementation of the continuum, is inevitable, including monitoring and surveillance at the farm, considering data from various sources and monitoring the chain and value addition.

Safe food is an amalgamation of the technical views and descriptions held by producers, consumers, special interest groups, academicians, regulators and industry and so, any single definition of it would be overly simplistic.

But consumers have a role in ensuring that food is safe. They need to make informed choices about how their food is prepared and handled. This calls for a widely accepted definition of safe food to avoid naive misconceptions about the attainable degree of safety.

Food safety standards have economic and scientific dimensions and consumers are not likely to pay the high cost of absolutely safe food. Primary producers, industry and the government have a responsibility of improving safety and educating consumers on the practical aspects of it.

The food safety system should provide suitable mechanisms for proactively preventing problems rather than relying on knee-jerk reactions. Food safety is the responsibility of everyone.

Dr Karau is head of research and development, Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs).