{"id":2172,"date":"2021-03-17T14:22:23","date_gmt":"2021-03-17T12:22:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dieticiansatwork.co.za\/blog\/?p=2172"},"modified":"2021-03-17T14:22:24","modified_gmt":"2021-03-17T12:22:24","slug":"food-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dieticiansatwork.co.za\/blog\/food-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"Food Safety"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Chen\u00e9 Vorster, RD(SA)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Food is an essential part to life and it is something that we require in our everyday lives to survive. It is thus very important that we practice safe food handling techniques to prevent foodborne illnesses. Globally, millions of people become ill and thousands die from foodborne illnesses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are many regulations in place in every country to\nensure that food is handled safely. In South Africa, there are three\ndepartments in charge of food legislation; Department of Agriculture, Forestry\nand Fisheries (DAFF), Department of Health (DoH) and Department of Trade and\nIndustry. The DAFF regulates the safety and quality of food products in several\nacts of parliament. Despite all the preventative measures taken, the consumer\nstill needs to be informed on food issues and safety measures when handling,\npreparing and storing food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our fast-paced world, serious local outbreaks have led to\ninternational emergencies due to the fast and wide distribution of food\nproducts. Food safety is often challenged in four major areas: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Microbiological safety: Growth of microbials on\nfoods can lead to foodborne illnesses. Over 90% of foodborne illnesses are\ncaused by different species of viruses.<\/li>
  2. Chemical safety: Chemical additives can have\nhigh levels of heavy metals that are dangerous to human health.<\/li>
  3. Personal hygiene: Poor hygiene practices lead to\ncontamination of food.<\/li>
  4. Environmental hygiene: High counts of pests and\ninsect from poor waste disposal can lead to food contamination in poor sanitary\nconditions.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Here are some tips to make sure you are as safe as can be in\nyour kitchen:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. Be squeaky clean:
      1. Wash your hands with soap and warm water,\nespecially after touching common household items.<\/li><\/ol>
        1. Always rinse your fruits and veggies.<\/li><\/ol>
          1. Wash your kitchen equipment with HOT water.<\/li><\/ol><\/li>
          2. Prevent cross-contamination:
            1. Separate your raw meat, fish and poultry from\nyour prepared or ready-to-eat foods.<\/li><\/ol>
              1. Use different chopping boards for raw meats,\ncooked meats, veggies and grains.<\/li><\/ol><\/li>
              2. Cook and chill:
                1. Use a thermometer to check that your food is\n100% cooked.<\/li><\/ol>
                  1. Keep foods out of the danger zone (4-40*C).\nStore foods above or below this temperature.<\/li><\/ol>
                    1. Defrost foods in the fridge, not on the\ncountertop or in the sun.<\/li><\/ol>
                      1. Discard perishables after they\u2019ve been left for\n2 hours at room temperature.<\/li><\/ol><\/li>
                      2. Pay attention to food recalls.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

                        References:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                        1. Whitney, E. and\nRolfes, S., 2016. Understanding Nutrition<\/em>. 14th ed. Stamford:\nCengage Learning.<\/li>
                        2. Fung, F., Wang, H.\nand Menon, S., 2018. Food safety in the 21st century. Biomedical\nJournal<\/em>, 41(2), pp.88-95.<\/li><\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                          By Chen\u00e9 Vorster, RD(SA) Food is an essential part to life and it is something that we require in our everyday lives to survive. It is thus very important that we practice safe food handling techniques to prevent foodborne illnesses. Globally, millions of people become ill and thousands die from foodborne illnesses. There are many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4CNFS-z2","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dieticiansatwork.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2172"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dieticiansatwork.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dieticiansatwork.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dieticiansatwork.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dieticiansatwork.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2172"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dieticiansatwork.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2174,"href":"https:\/\/dieticiansatwork.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2172\/revisions\/2174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dieticiansatwork.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dieticiansatwork.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dieticiansatwork.co.za\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}