ABSTRACT
Food safety has been identified at domestic, regional, and international levels as a public health priority, as unsafe food causes illness in millions of people every year and many deaths. Key global food safety concerns include the spread of microbiological hazards; chemical food contaminants; assessments of new food technologies (such as genetically modified food); and the creation of strong food safety systems in most countries to ensure a safe global food chain. Safe food is essential for living a healthy life, but if safety is compromised it becomes the major source of ill health and diseases. According to the World Health Organization, serious outbreaks of foodborne disease have been documented on every continent in the past decade, and in many countries the rates of related illnesses are increasing significantly. It is estimated that up to one-third of the population in developed countries is affected by microbiological foodborne diseases each year, while the problem is likely to be even more widespread in developing countries. In addition, chronic dietary exposure to various chemical toxicants, which enter the food chain at different levels, can also be considered a major problem. Moreover, in developing countries there is an extra problem regarding the dilemma of food safety versus food security. Adoption of agricultural practices, such as the use of fertilizers and pesticides to increase yield, and the storage and processing of food are also increasing the chances of contamination and exposure to chemical toxicants. All these concerns have resulted in efforts being made by the food industry to create systems that can assure the consumer about the safety of food. Such efforts to create food assurance systems are a continuous process, but the last decade has seen that these efforts toward the development and implementation of different food safety management systems to assure food safety in the agriculture food chain have increased in manifold ways. As a result of this, more stringent requirements for foodstuffs have been specified as well and, as a corollary to that, so have requirement assurance systems. Usually such assurance systems cover different aspects of food safety (e.g., microbiological, chemical, and physical hazards) and the possibilities of controlling these hazards along the agri-food chain (e.g., farming, processing, and trading/distribution of food products) at different levels (e.g., company, stakeholder as government, NGO, sector association, university, or research institute levels). Food business operators (FBOs) and even other stakeholders have to familiarize themselves with Codex Alimentarius guidelines or legal requirements, knowledge of microbiological and chemical food safety, implementation of food safety management systems based on prerequisite programs, and Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) principles. A large number of voluntary standards are also filling the gap, as international quality assurance standards such as ISO 22000 and GLOBALG.A.P. and similar standards are gaining prominence. 164Sampling and monitoring plans, inspection, food audit schedules, and storage/processing techniques have become a part of marketing strategy. The concept of risk analysis and its different parts (i.e., risk assessment, risk management, and risk communication) are used at every stage in the regulatory domain. The objective of all these activities is to enhance the confidence of FBOs and also to assure the consumer about the safety of the food (ISO/TS 22004: 2005).
