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Better health starts with safer food
Hereâs an important message to all the foodies out there: the next time you sit down to consume something, whether on the street or at a restaurant, make sure the food on your plate is safe
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H
em>Here's an important message to all the foodiesout there: the next time you sit down to consume something, whether on thestreet or at a restaurant, make sure the food on your plate is safe.
In line with the WHO's worldwide campaign to educate people on the dangers of unsafe food, the Health Ministry is launching a series of programs to raise awareness on this important issue. It is estimated that as many as 2 million people die annually, including many children, from food-borne and water-borne diarrheal diseases, and that unsafe food containing harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites or chemical substances causes more than 200 diseases. Food-borne pathogens, for example, can cause severe diarrhea or debilitating infections including meningitis. Chemical contamination can lead to acute poisoning or long-term diseases, such as cancer, and food-borne diseases may lead to long-lasting disability and death.
Working together with the Indonesian Consumers Organization (YLKI) and research universities, the ministry is pushing for an effective partnership among the government, society and the business sector to embrace a healthier lifestyle for all, by guarding against the dangers of harmful substances, as mandated by Law No. 18/2012 on food.
As the world's population grows, so too the intensification and industrialization of agriculture and animal production, posing greater challenges on food producers and handlers to ensure food safety. In this interconnected world, local incidents can quickly evolve into international emergencies. The WHO noted that in the past decade, serious food-borne disease outbreaks have occurred on every continent.
Take, for example, the contamination of infant formula with melamine in 2008, which affected 300,000 infants and young children, six of whom died, in China. In 2011, the Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli outbreak in Germany, which was linked to contaminated fenugreek sprouts, led to cases in other countries in Europe and North America and ended up causing billions of dollars in losses for farmers and industries as well as hundreds of millions of dollars in emergency aid payments to 22 European Union member states.
Food safety, according to the WHO, needs concerted global prioritized effort to assess the risk of food-borne hazards, set international standards, operate global alert mechanisms, assess the relevance and safety of new food technologies and help countries to build basic capacities.
The first step toward reaching meaningful achievement on the part of policymakers would be by aligning policies in agriculture, trade, health, education and social protection. At home, governments should build and maintain adequate food systems and infrastructure, such as laboratories, to respond to and manage food safety risks along the entire food chain, including during emergencies. In line with this, the Health Ministry is beefing up monitoring and supervision, both pre-market and post-market, as well as distributing food contamination kits at a regional level.
On another note, policymakers across the world are encouraged to foster multi-sector collaboration among public health, animal health, agriculture and other sectors for better communication and joint action, integrate food safety into broader food policies and programs, such as on nutrition and food security, and promote awareness and understanding of food safety issues among the general public, with educational campaigns directed toward food handlers and consumers.
On their part, consumers are advised to know the food they use, by reading labels on food packaging and becoming familiar with common food hazards. They are also encouraged to handle and prepare food safely, or better yet, grow their own fruit and vegetables to decrease microbial contamination.
While antimicrobials, such as antibiotics, are essential to treat infections caused by bacteria, their overuse and misuse in veterinary and human medicine has been linked to the emergence and spread of resistant bacteria, making antimicrobial resistance one of the main threats to modern medicine.
All of this raises the question of just how much we should pay attention to food safety. School children can very easily get their hands on food from street vendors without knowing how safe or clean the food is. They can also potentially get food poisoning from eating at large social events. Food poisoning isn't something that happens incredibly often, but it also isn't something that can be said to be extremely rare either.
People in general know how to avoid foods that "look" bad. For example, anyone will avoid dishes with rotten ingredients. Oftentimes, however, foods contain dangerous pathogens or chemicals that don't necessarily change the way a dish looks, smells or tastes, so these dangerous often elude the general consumer.
With all of this in mind, it certainly is important for parents to do what they can to keep their family food safe. The following are some basic tips: (1) maintain general cleanliness, (2) separate raw and cooked foods, (3) cook everything until they become well-done, (4) store foods in appropriate storage temperatures and (5) use safe water and raw ingredients.
These seem like simple steps, but they can have complex applications in real life. Some additional guidelines by the Health Ministry include: (1) ensuring the availability of sanitation facilities such as hand-washing stations and waste-disposal areas, and (2) becoming a member of the National Social Security Program, especially if you are a food seller.
