‘Food safety is a shared responsibility between govt., producers, consumers’

Dimapur, June 6 (EMN): Food safety is a global concern that covers a variety of different areas of everyday life, stated Nagaland’s Food Safety Cell Directorate of Health and Family Welfare on the occasion of second World Food Safety Day on June 7 with the theme “Food safety, everyone’s business”.

In an update issued on Saturday, the department has urged the people “to take action in ensuring food safety whether you/we grow, process, transport, store, distribute, sell, prepare, serve or consume food. We all have a role to play in keeping it safe”.

Food safety is a shared responsibility between governments, producers and consumers, it said, adding that “everybody has a role to play from farm to table to ensure the food we consume is safe and will not cause damages to our health”. Through the World Food Safety Day, World Health Organisation (WHO) pursues its efforts to mainstream food safety in the public agenda and reduce the burden of food borne diseases globally, it was informed.

“Food safety refers to handling, preparing and storing food in a way to best reduce the risks of individual becoming such from food borne illness. We have become so busy in our everyday life to notice about food safety that we often take it for granted, which has led to increase in numbers of people diagnosing with food borne illness globally,” the update read.

Stating that World Food Safety Day is a unique opportunity to raise awareness about dangers of unsafe food with government agencies, producers, handlers and consumers, the Health department said “unsafe or unhygienic food can cause food-borne illness causing hazardous effect on human health”.

“Access to safe food is a key to sustaining life and promoting good health. As per World Health Organisation, around 600 million cases of food borne illness occur annually and an estimated 3 million people around the world die every year from food and water borne diseases. Thus, food safety is everybody’s responsibility whether it is growing, storing, selling or consuming food,” the update informed.

During this time of crisis, access to healthy food is more at risk than any other times, it said. It went on to say the following methods can be followed to ensure food safety though food is not known to transmit Covid-19:

Five pillars of food safety

• Maintain personal hygiene while handling food.
• Wash hands with clean soap and water.
• Keep your hair tied while cooking.
• Keep nails short and clean.
• Avoid handling and cooking food when you are ill.

Keep cooking and surrounding area clean

• Clean kitchen area, counters, sink and sanitised regularly.
• Keep dustbin covered and clean.
• Do not throw food in kitchen sink/drains.

Follow keys to safer food

• Wash fruits and vegetables with clean water.
• Separate raw and cooked food.
• Cook and reheat food thoroughly.
• Keep food safely at right temperature.

Check food for adulteration and spoilage before consuming

• Do not buy food that appears spoiled or with damaged packaging.
• Test common food adulterants using the DART book at www.fssai.gov.in.
• Report adulteration online atfoodsafetynagalandhelpline@gmail.com.

Read food labels before buying to know what you are eating

• Look for FSSAI logo, food fortification, organic food BIS logo.
• Check the ‘Best before’ date/use by date.
• Check list of ingredients and nutritional information.
• Check for food allergens.
• Make sure your choice of food products is FSSAI licensed or registered.