What is food safety?

Food safety refers to the condition and practices that preserve the quality of food to prevent contamination (microbial, physical or chemical) and foodborne illness. Symptoms of foodborne illness includes: abdominal cramping, diarrhea, which may be bloody, nausea, vomiting, fever, headache, fatigue and body aches. Due to increasing number of foodborne illnesses, food safety becomes an important concern in the world.

In Singapore, the department: Agri-Veterinary Authority(AVA) observes a stringent food safety standards to ensure that food consumed in Singapore are safe. Food are usually manufactured, then undergoes processing and distributed to the retail sotres. Lastly, it will be consumed by the consumers. Thus, it is everone's responsibility to ensure the safety of the food.

Good maufacturing practices and hygiene practices should be oberved during the processing or manufacturing. It is the job of the food industries to provide safe food to the consumers. It is the job of the consumers to buy food that are in good conditions, example: in good packaging without openings or non-dented cans or eggs and meat that does not have any foul odour. The consumers also have to ensure when preparing and cooking food at home, good hygiene is practiced. Food should also be throughly cooked. Storing of food at the right temperature is also another essential factor of preventing food from turning bad fast. Example: Do NOT store raw and cooked food together or side by side in the refrigerator. This is to prevent cross-contamination which can lead to foodborne illness. Instead, store cooked food above raw food in the fridge.

Absolute sterility in food is not possible to obtain, however, we should still keep food safe at an acceptable level. Although different countries has different food safety standards, but everyone has a common ultimate goal which is: to provide safe food for everyone and ensuring that people will get healthier through eating.