Food safety is a scientific discipline describing handling, preparation, and storage of food in ways that prevent food borne illness. This includes a number of routines that should be followed to avoid potentially severe health hazards. Food can transmit disease from person to person as well as serve as a growth medium for bacteria that can cause food poisoning. Debates on genetic food safety include such issues as impact of genetically modified food on health of further generations and genetic pollution of environment, which can destroy natural biological diversity. In developed countries there are intricate standards for food preparation, whereas in lesser developed countries the main issue is simply the availability of adequate safe water, which is usually a critical item.

 

The rapid globalization of food production and trade has increased the potential likelihood of international incidents involving contaminated food. Food safety authorities all over the world have acknowledged that ensuring food safety must not only be tackled at the national level but also through closer linkages among food safety authorities at the international level. This is important for exchanging routine information on food safety issues and to have rapid access to information in case of food safety emergencies. INFOSAN also facilitates the exchange of food safety information and experience among its members.

 

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack, the co-chairs of the Obama Administration’s Food Safety Working Group, unveiled a new consumer Web site today at www.foodsafety.gov. The site is designed to help consumers and families get all the latest information on food safety and food recalls in one convenient place.

 

Today, victims of foodborne illness, including mothers and their children, are dropping off lunch bags to Senate offices in Washington, DC and Senate offices in several communities throughout the country. These mock-up lunch bags detail the potential health hazards that may exist in common lunch items such as sandwiches, snacks, berries and juice- foods that caring moms across the country are packing up to send their kids back to school with, and foods that we take for granted as being safe.

 

Is it true – can a person get sick from taking a dip at the community swimming pool? Well – yeah. People have gotten sick after swimming because other swimmers have urinated or defecated in the pool. Sure, no one intentionally drinks pool water. But, it does happen – and when it does, contaminated water has entered a person’s system. Chlorine can only do so much. Hopefully your pool has a policy about swim diapers. I bet if a Certified Pool Operator (CPO) is in charge that it does. The CPO® is to pools what ServSafe® or CP-FS is to retail foodservices – an assurance that the person in charge knows the right way to maintain operations. In one study we did among Iowa pool operators, we found CPO®- run pools had more structure.