Methods to prevent food safety risks
Illnesses caused by eating contaminated food can affect anyone. Preventing food safety risks involves understanding how and when food becomes unsafe.
The issue takes on special importance if we understand that segments of the population, such as babies, the elderly, pregnant women and people suffering from autoimmune diseases, are especially vulnerable to these food safety risks.
Preventing food safety risks is also an effective way to protect good reputation and ensure consumer trust. Understanding these risks and their associated consequences significantly reduces the negative impact of an incident, or may even prevent it from occurring.
We basically find four categories of food safety risks: biological, chemical, physical and allergenic. Each of them has unique characteristics, but they can all be prevented if we adopt the six methods that we explain below.
Food safety risks – 6 methods to prevent them:
Safe Quality Food:
– is a certifiable management system that aims to produce and market foods that do not affect the health of consumers. The System focuses on food industry organizations that produce ingredients, those that prepare foods to be served to customers, those that package, distribute, store and retail whole foods, prepared or unprepared, as well as ingredients and inputs.
Based on the guidelines of this Quality System for food production, we extract six ways to prevent food safety risks, which will allow organizations in this sector to implement effective controls to guarantee the safety of consumers:
Investigate, identify and eradicate common causes:
To find the most common causes of problems that generate high-impact risks for food safety, you don’t have to look far. Common sense and historical records lead us to put our eyes, first of all, on the water we use to wash, process or prepare food.
Cross contamination, produced by handling without observing due hygienic precautions, or the use of instruments in similar conditions, is responsible for expanding the harmful effects of the use of contaminated water.
Improper handling of ingredients, as well as not cooking certain foods at the appropriate temperature, or storing them without maintaining the cold chain when it is necessary, complete the list of common sources of risks to human health. As we can see, these are really common events and situations, and very easy to foresee and eliminate.
Plan for food safety:
All organizational activities require planning if the proposed objectives are to be achieved. Food safety is no exception. But it is also important to document the planning, risk assessment and controls that will be implemented, as well as the follow-up and monitoring mechanisms that will be adopted.
The food safety plan will incorporate logical and sequential processes, which will form a system for risk assessment and management. https://blogwritting.com/
Monitor and control the supplier chain:
In any production process, quality and satisfaction of customer needs cannot be guaranteed if the distribution chain is not controlled and supervised.
One option is to extend risk management to suppliers. This implies transferring the responsibility of control to them. This will not always be easily accepted. Establishing contractual penalties, in case of non-compliance, is a measure that can be effective.
Implement strict hygiene measures:
Frequent and thorough washing of hands and implements, ingredients, tools and facilities are essential measures for the prevention of food safety risks.
To these measures, periodic controls must be added to detect infectious, viral or bacterial diseases. Eating where food is prepared or processed, smoking, consuming alcoholic beverages, or entertaining visitors are, of course, practices that are prohibited in a food safety plan.
Use appropriate temperatures:
Both for cooking food, as well as for its storage and disposal. Having adequate temperature controls for each type of food and for each of the steps in the production process prevents the transmission of viruses, bacteria and diseases.
Follow proper sanitation methods:
This involves taking hygiene and cleanliness measures from the kitchen to all areas of the company. Bathrooms, social areas, dining rooms, changing rooms, must be scrupulously cleaned daily and these actions must be supervised and monitored to verify that they are being done correctly.
Food Safety Training:
Excellence has extensive experience in training in quality management, management systems and management skills. Our training offer is now complemented with two High Level programs focused on the food industry:
Fundamentals of Food Safety and Traceability Course:
This program has been designed to provide professionals with the necessary skills to design and implement a series of actions and procedures, to register a product and establish its traceability from its point of origin to its final destination. Click Here for Food Safety Course in UAE
Sandy D