Heavy metal, hazard in food safety

The term ‘heavy metal’ refers to any relatively high-density metallic element that is toxic or poisonous even at low concentrations.

Heavy metals are natural components of the earth crust and cannot be destroyed. It can enter food through the soil or water and can cause acute or chronic illness.

They may contaminate fruit and vegetable constituents with different mechanisms, thus entering the food chain.

The most concern, with respect to their biotitic effects and presence on food, are copper, fluorine, selenium, arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury.

These elements have no known bio-importance in human biochemistry and physiology and consumption, even at very low concentration can cause toxic effect, because they tend to accumulate in the human body over time.

Food animal exposure of arsenic typically via fees or liquids contaminated with arsenical herbicides, rodenticides or insecticides. Accumulation of arsenic occurs in the liver and kidney, when fatty degeneration can be seen.

High levels of cadmium are a major concern in fish and shellfish hygiene, since the meat is major water contaminant.

Cadmium, lead and mercury ability to accumulate in certain edible tissue make them potential contaminants of foods from animal origin.

Heavy metals and other inorganic substance pose a constant threat to low income population in developing countries with respect to water and food safety.
Heavy metal, hazard in food safety

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Hazard of antibiotic drug residues

When animal receives antibiotics drugs through feeds or improper treatment residues can occur in animal products.

Drug residues in food may present risks. Antibiotic residues are most likely to be found in foods of animal origin, such as meat poultry, fish, eggs and honey.

They are usually present as a result of the use of therapeutic veterinary drugs to control infection and disease in food animals.

Animals and humans may b deposed via residues in animal products. Human are also exposed when handling products containing the residues.

Both ways of exposure could be harmful if the product has organ toxicity, mutagenicity or allergenicity.

Some residents pose chronic risks, antibiotics used in animals is also alleged to contribute to the growing resistance of microorganisms to antibiotics.

Antibiotics are frequently used to treat mastitis in cows, and therefore antibiotic residues may be present in milk.

The use of antibiotic growth promoters in animal is unlikely to give rise to detectable residues in meat and other animal products unless they have been administered at levels much higher than are permitted.
Hazard of antibiotic drug residues

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Biological hazards in food safety

Foods can be contaminated by physical, chemical and biological hazards. Biological hazards include bacterial, viral and parasitic microorganisms.

Bacterial pathogens comprise the majority of confirmed foodborne disease outbreaks and cases.

Examples of these type hazards include such organisms as E. coli 0157:H7, Salmonella, Clostridium botulinum and Listeria monocytogenes.

It is generally biological hazard that pose the greatest immediate food safety threat to the consumer.

For example, the ability of food poisoning bacteria to cause large outbreaks of acute illness within a short time is a threat with which most food businesses are likely to have to contend.

Biological hazards seem to have a more notorious impact on public opinion than physical or chemical risks, probably because biological risks are more frequently reported and normally affect to a certain extent a large number of consumers.

It is difficult to avoid microorganism because they are everywhere. However, most biological hazards are inactivated or killed by adequate cooking and/or their numbers are kept to a minimum by sufficient cooling.
Biological hazards in food safety

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Physical Hazard in Food Product

Anything foreign to the food can be considered a physical hazard. Dust, dirt, hair, metal shavings and broken glass, for example, are items foreign to the original food and are considered harmful.

Physical hazards can enter a food product at any stage in its production.

There is huge variety of physical items that can enter food as foreign material and some of these are hazard to food safety.

Physical hazards include:
*Dirt
*Dust
*Hair
*Broken glass and crockery – it could cause an injury or choking of swallowed.
*Nails
*Staples
*Metal fragments and other objects that accidentally enter foods
*Foreign objects

The sources of physical hazards during food manufacturing and processing usually fall under one of the following categories:
*Incoming raw materials
*Processing equipment
*Failures in prerequisites programmes

In the past year, advances un technology have brought improvements in physical hazard control with the improved of metal detector capability, x-ray detection and vision sorters.

Improvements will continue and business should in the alert for new improved equipments.
Physical Hazard in Food Product

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Three Types of Food Safety Hazards

Food safety is an issue that is taken very seriously. If you are manufacturing food products to sell, it is our responsibility to be aware and always follow, the food regulations relevant to the types of products you are producing.

Foods safety hazards are contaminants that may cause a food product to be unsafe for production.

Identifying Hazards Food becomes unsafe accidentally when harmful things like micro-organisms and chemicals get into foods. The three most common types of hazards are:

• Biological hazards - include bacteria, viruses and parasites.
Microbial foodborne illness, also commonly called ‘food poisoning’, is illness cause by eating food contaminated with specific types of microorganism or toxins formed by these microorganisms.

• Chemical hazards - include pesticides, food additives and preservatives, cleaning supplies and toxic metals that leech through worn cookware and equipment. This chemicals that can cause harm though toxic effects, either immediate or long term.

• Physical hazards – include dirt, broken glass and crockery, food packaging, hair and other objects that could accidentally get into food. This items can cause harm though direct injury or choking.
Three Types of Food Safety Hazards

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The Important of Food Safety Hazards in Developing Countries

The Important of Food Safety Hazards in Developing Countries
All countries share similar concerns about food safety hazards, but also relative importance of risks differs with climate, food habits, levels of income and public infrastructure.

Some risks are greater in developing countries.

Poor sanitation and inadequate drinking water supplies pose a much greater hazard to health in developing countries than in developed ones.

Diarrheal disease accounts for most illness and death in children under five.

According to WHO study, of the approximately 1,500 million global episodes of diarrhea occurring annually, resulting in 3 million deaths among children under five, 70 percent have been estimated to have been caused by biologically contaminated food. Contaminated food has been recognized as playing a major role in the epidemiology of cholera and other forms of epidemic diarrhea, substantially contributing to malnutrition.

Other hazard may also differ by climate and level of income. Mycotoxins are more prevalent in the sub-tropics and tropics, and pose greater risks where diets are concentrated in foods that have higher mycotoxins levels.

Parasites are also common. For example, cysticercosis in endemic in rural areas of Latin America, Asia and Africa infecting between 2 to 15 percent of the population, in comparison with less than one-hundredth of a percent infected population in the US.

Many of the reasons why food safety is becoming a more important issue worldwide are most compelling in developing countries.

Increased food borne disease can be expected from increased urbanization, which lengthens the food chain and introduces new risks; climate change, which encourages the growth of some pathogens; shrinking fresh water supplies, which increases the cost of risk mitigation; and the growth of immune compromised populations who are susceptible to foodborne illness.

In addition, expanded food product trade and migration will contribute to the globalization of food borne diseases.
The Important of Food Safety Hazards in Developing Countries

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What is Food Safety?

What is Food Safety?
Unsafe food contains hazards that can make people sick, either immediately or by increasing their risk of chronic disease.

Hazards that receive attention from policy makers include:

• Microbial pathogens - Microorganisms like Salmonella, Listeria, Campylobacter, or E. coli that occur naturally in animals humans or the environment can cause diarrhea and long term complications like kidney failure.
  
• Zoonotic diseases – Diseases like tuberculosis or brucellosis can be transmitted from animals to humans through food.
  
• Parasites – Intestinal worms afflict several hundred million people in developing countries; some are transmitted through contaminated water or food.
  
• Adulterant – Physical contaminates in food such as metal or glass, or other nonfood elements, such as rodent feces can pose a hazard.
  
• Mycotoxins – Naturally occurring on plants or in animal product when animal eat feeds containing mycotoxins. Mycotoxins increase the risk of cancer in humans.
  
• Antibiotic drug residues - When animal receives antibiotics drugs through feeds or improper treatment residues can occur in animal products. Some residents pose chronic risks, antibiotics used in animals is also alleged to contribute to the growing resistance of microorganisms to antibiotics.
  
• Pesticides residues - Result from pesticides used in production and distribution. Some residues increase the risk of cancer; others carry risks of neurochemical damage.
  
• Heavy metal – Enter food through the soil or water and can cause acute or chronic illness.
  
• GMOs – Genetically modified foods may contain allergens or toxins that are not found in conventional foods.

What is Food Safety?

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