Chapter 1 Management of Food Safety and Hygiene: An Overview
Food is a basic human need. Its safety and nutritional quality play a fundamental role in the health of people. The Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC), the international body which sets standards for foods, defines food hygiene as "all conditions and measures necessary to ensure the safety and suitability of food at all stages of the food chain." The term food hygiene covers two concepts, i) food safety and ii) food suitability. According to the CAC, food safety is "the assurance that food will not cause harm to the consumer, when it is prepared and eaten according to its intended use", whereas food suitability is the "assurance that food is acceptable for human consumption according to its intended use. Food safety constitutes one of the most fundamental and vital aspects of any food operation. However ensuring food safety in the present era has become a difficult task as plethora of chemical, physical and biological agents may contaminate the food supply and threaten public health as well as food business. Today there is adequate scientific and technical knowledge, technological means and managerial experience to ensure the safety of products. Presently concepts like Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) and risk analysis have been well developed and integrated in the management of food safety and hygiene at national and international level. In this chapter significance of food hygiene, and food safety and various approaches for their management has been reviewed.
Chapter 2 Food Contamination and Food Spoilage
The interaction of versatile nutrients present in food leads to several degradative chemical changes that deteriorate the quality and shelf life of food. The deteriorative changes are enhanced during contamination at various stages of processing, handling and storage. These changes include lipid oxidation, enzymatic or non-enzymatic browning, putrefaction and toxicity due to hazardous substances. Contamination occurs from various physical, chemical and biological sources, and is affected by external factors such as time-temperature combinations, poor hygiene and sanitation. Most of the contaminants are from natural sources but some are deliberately added. Recent food contaminants include veterinary drug residues, pesticides, undesirable fermentation products, nanoparticles, packaging materials and radionuclides. Contamination leads to spoilage of foods and may be due to the activity of microorganisms, action of enzymes, chemical reactions (harmful additives, mycotoxins, bacterial toxins and radiations) and physical changes (caused by freezing, burning, drying, pressure). Of all the causes of spoilage, microbiological cause plays a decisive role. Spoilage is enhanced by various extrinsic and intrinsic factors (pH, redox potential, water activity and the presence of antimicrobial substances in a food material). The characteristics of the environment in which the food is maintained, such as temperature, atmosphere and relative humidity also affect food spoilage. Spoilage changes nitrogenous organic compounds of food into alpha keto acid, ammonia, propionic acid, amides, imides, and urea. Complex carbohydrates are hydrolysed to simple sugars by fermentation. Organic acids are oxidized to carbonates causing the medium to become more alkaline. Consumption of such contaminated and spoiled food can lead to various food borne illnesses and intoxication. Therefore, this necessitates the implementation of food hygiene during processing and storage; and also the incorporation of food authentication techniques such as biosensors, aptasensors, spectroscopy techniques in tandem with chemometrics analytical approaches for quantitative assessment of food spoilage. In this chapter, how are food spoilage being regulated, food contamination, the importance of personal hygiene, good
About the Author: Abdul Malik is a professor and former head of the Department of Agricultural Microbiology at Aligarh Muslim University in Aligarh, India. Zerrin Erginkaya is a professor and former head of the Department of Food Engineering at Cukurova University in Adana, Turkey, and Hüseyin Erten is current head of the Department of Food Engineering, Cukurova University in Adana Turkey.
