COVID-19 and Food Safety
COVID-19 Pandemic affects the way food is produced and in turn the way
food is produced affects how people or communities are protected against
COVID-19. There is a connection between food, immunity, well-being and the body’s
ability to prevent COVID-19 transmission. So, in order to prevent food-related
or linked vulnerability to COVID-19, it is better we understood how to maintain
food hygiene. There are five food hygiene best-practices we should adopt and
maintain.
Food hygiene is an important aspect of food production, preparation, consumption
and preservation. By ensuring food hygiene, we are reducing the chances
pathogens can colonise or make home in our foods through exposure. Pathogens
are disease causing organisms.
According to WHO, food hygiene are all those conditions and measures
necessary to ensure the safety of food from production to consumption.
Food can become contaminated at any point during slaughtering or
harvesting, processing, storage, distribution, transportation and preparation.
Lack of adequate food
hygiene can lead to foodborne diseases and death of consumers.
Promoting safe food handling through systematic disease prevention and health education programmes directed to food handlers, including the consumers is important.
Promoting safe food handling through systematic disease prevention and health education programmes directed to food handlers, including the consumers is important.
Foodborne and waterborne diarrhoeal diseases are a problem for every
country in the world but they can be prevented.
Diarrhoea is the acute, most common symptom of foodborne illness, but
other serious consequences include kidney and liver failure, brain and neural
disorders, reactive arthritis, cancer and death.
It is important to acquire the social skills through building capacity to prevent, detect and manage foodborne risks. Some of the activities include community mobilisation, awareness raising, providing food hygiene complaint infrastructure, generating baseline and trend data on foodborne diseases and supporting implementation of adequate infrastructures (e.g. laboratories, clean markets, refrigeration and access to proper food preparation facilities).
It is important to acquire the social skills through building capacity to prevent, detect and manage foodborne risks. Some of the activities include community mobilisation, awareness raising, providing food hygiene complaint infrastructure, generating baseline and trend data on foodborne diseases and supporting implementation of adequate infrastructures (e.g. laboratories, clean markets, refrigeration and access to proper food preparation facilities).
Each year worldwide, unsafe
food causes 600 million cases of foodborne diseases and 420 000 deaths. 30% of
foodborne deaths occur among children under 5 years of age. WHO estimated that
33 million years of healthy lives are lost due to eating unsafe food globally
each year, and this number is likely an underestimation.
Foodborne
diseases are preventable and WHO has a critical role in taking global
leadership in investment and coordinated action across multiple sectors in
order to build strong and resilient national food safety systems and provide
consumers with tools to make safe food choices. With food safety receiving
relatively little political attention, especially in developing countries, having
a reliable data on the actual national burden of foodborne diseases is
essential to draw public attention and mobilize political will and resources to
combat foodborne diseases.
There five best-practices one
can maintain: keep clean to avoid contamination; separate raw food from dry
ones and avoid preparing them in same spot; fully cook your foods as this kills
pathogens; keep your foods at the right and safe temperatures to avoid growth
of pathogens; and use safe water and all raw materials to avoid contamination.
Food hygiene prevents food
borne infections which in turn may expose one to illnesses and loss of life.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important that people are aware of the link
between poor food handling and vulnerability to diseases such as COVID-19. This
will then empower them to make informed decisions about how to avoid food borne
diseases, hunger and detrimental food handling practices.
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