Defining food safety

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

Today, the subject food safety has become a discipline in its own right and a formal definition was elaborated in 1997 by the CAC (Codex Alimentarius Commission).

According to CAC, food safety is the assurance that food will not cause harm to the consumer when it is prepared and/or eaten according to its intended use.’

It is the state of acceptable and tolerable risks of illness, disease or injury from the consumption of foods.

It is achieved through policies, regulations, standards, research, engineering designs and technology, surveillance and monitoring and other applicable measure to reduce the risk or control hazards in the food supply chain.

Essentially, the practice of food safety can be distilled down to three basic operations:
*Protection of the food supply from harmful contamination’
*Prevention of the development and spread of harmful contamination
*Effective removal of contamination and contaminants.
Defining food safety