Question

why do you think it is your responsibility to ensure that you get only good quality food for consumption

Answer 1

Food safety is everybody’s concern, and it is difficult to find anyone who has not encountered an unpleasant moment of foodborne illness at least once in the past year. Foodborne illnesses may result from the consumption of food contaminated by microbial pathogens, toxic chemicals or radioactive materials. Food allergy is another emerging problem. While many foodborne diseases may be self-limiting, some can be very serious and even result in death. Ensuring food safety is becoming increasingly important in the context of changing food habits, popularization of mass catering establishments and the globalization of our food supply. As our food supply becomes increasingly globalized, the need to strengthen food safety systems in and between all countries is becoming more and more evident. That is why WHO is promoting efforts to improve food safety, from farm to plate (and everywhere in between) on World Health Day, 7 April 2015. The World Health Day 2015 slogan is: “From farm to plate, make food safe”.

The informal food production and marketing system is still strong in most countries of the South-East Asia Region, which presents challenges for enforcement of food safety regulations. As a result, instances of food adulteration and contamination can occur. Traditionally, societal preferences call for hot and well-cooked food, and even milk is boiled (pasteurized). These habits are partially responsible for preventing foodborne infections. Street food is popular in urban settings in many countries. Hygienic conditions are improving, provided that potable water supply and clean facilities are ensured by municipal authorities. The introduction of bottled drinking water and its popularity in urban areas has contributed to prevent waterborne and diarrhoeal diseases in countries with inconsistent water treatment. Political awareness and consumer education on food safety will help strengthen enforcement of food standards, improve hygienic practices, and prevent foodborne illnesses. The “WHO Five keys to safer food” serve as the basis for educational programmes to train food handlers and educate the consumers. They are especially important in preventing foodborne illness. The Five keys are as follows.
Keep food surfaces clean. Wash all utensils, plates, platters, and cutlery as soon as used.Separate raw food from cooked food.Cook food thoroughly, to the appropriate temperature. Keep food at safe temperatures, both for serving and storage. Use safe water and raw materials.

Ensuring food safety starts with production, at the farm level. In this regard, misuse of agro-chemicals, including pesticides, growth hormones and veterinary drugs may have harmful effects on human health. The microbial and chemical risks could be introduced at the farm-level (e.g. using water contaminated by industrial waste or poultry farm waste for irrigation of crops). Good agricultural practices should be applied to reduce microbial and chemical hazards. Organic farming (without the use of pesticides) has been promoted in many countries of the South-East Asia Region, as there is a significant segment of health-conscious people. particularly in urban settings. Although organic products are expensive as compared to commonly available food items, there is a tendency among health- conscious consumers to eat less, but buy organic foods.

Ensuring food safety requires due attention during harvest, transport, processing, storage and finally during food preparation and storage by consumers. Processed, frozen or ready-to-eat food is gaining popularity in recent years due to changing food habits, product diversification, busy lifestyle and mass production practices. In urban settings, there is a growing tendency to buy meat, milk and vegetables on the weekend and store these items in the freezer or refrigerator. Microwave ovens are often used for reheating of food. However, while using a refrigerator and microwave are part of daily life in urban settings, most users and food handlers rarely have a chance to learn how to safely store and reheat food. We have, therefore, developed a collection of questions and answers on food safety, considering this knowledge gap among consumers and food handlers, with a specific focus on concerns of regional importance. These questions and answers include topics such as food adulteration and falsification (food fraud), unhealthy and unsafe food-handling practices in food markets and at home, and food allergies.

Answer 2

The question is asked as to why do we think that it is our responsibility to ensure that we get only good quality food for consumption and the answer will be for our health.

• There is a very common saying watch what you put in your mouth and this is because what we put in our point will definitely affect our health.
• Health is wealth and if we don't take care of our health the wealth that we are earning will go away slowly by paying medical bills.
• We should ensure that we eat only good quality food as this will keep our health good.
• We can't afford to let our health deteriorate as it will lead to problems.
• As one problem in our health will slowly lead to another one so we should be careful to take care and the only way in which we can take care is by eating only good quality food.

PROJECT CODE: #SPJ3