Food safety entails appropriate handling, preparation. Use and store foods in the manner that prevent both chemical and microbial as well as minimize microbial proliferation.

Food Safety is a very broad topic and includes safety precautions on pesticides, herbicides, chemical additives, and importantly microbes.

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Food scientists, food processors and consumers focus most on microbiological quality because micro organisms are often too small to be seen with the naked eyes and they have the ability to multiply profusely every 15-20 minutes. Many of them produce toxins and/or cause infections; others cause spoilage and some causes both.  

-They pose great challenges to the food industry and thus, the designs of most food processing outlets are made with microbial quality in mind. This includes a number of techniques that should be strictly adhered to ward off potentially risk factors from coming into direct contact with food materials and food containers while at the same time lessening the effects of severe health hazards.

-Chemical contamination of foods, on the other hand includes residues of pesticides, herbicides, veterinary drugs, heavy metals and other extraneous matters in foods.

Apart from chemical or microbial contamination, the good itself is a chemical constituent if handled inappropriately may decompose to yield substances with immediate or potent health hazard if consumed. For example, fat and oil breakdown will not only result in rancidity but will yield hydroperoxides and polymeric compounds that are detrimental to the body.  

It is also a well-known fact that food can transmit disease from person to person as well as serve as a growth medium for bacteria that cause food poisoning and/or spoilage.  


Thus, food safety starts from the farm through merchandise, and up to the time the food enters the mouth. In this way, there should be assurance of safety and quality of the food along the chain when all precautions aimed at getting rid of contaminants are well served.

 
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