Food Safety refers to handling, preparing and storing food in a way to best reduce the risk of individuals becoming sick from foodborne illnesses.

Food safety is a global concern that covers a variety of different areas of everyday life.

The principles of food safety aim to prevent food from becoming contaminated and causing food poisoning. This is achieved through a variety of different avenues, some of which are:

• Properly cleaning and sanitising all surfaces, equipment and utensils
• Maintaining a high level of personal hygiene, especially hand-washing
• Storing, chilling and heating food correctly with regards to temperature, environment and equipment
• Implementing effective pest control
• Comprehending food allergies, food poisoning and food intolerance

The main purpose of a food safety standard is to provide consumers with safe food. Quality management plays a vital role within the food industry, across many different stages of sourcing, processing and packaging. In addition to basic laws and regulations on nutritive value, quality levels also incorporate factors such as shelf-life, raw materials, taste, texture, use of preservatives and many other indicators too.

Not surprisingly, this makes it all the more important for food manufacturers to adhere to an efficient quality management system (QMS) in order to achieve standardisation and meet the demands of consumers and authorities.

When it comes to food quality, the definition can vary considerably in its use – some may use the term to define high end products such as caviar, while others may use the term in reference to basic quality of everyday items such as bread. In terms of quality control and management however, the term is used universally to ensure that all food products are processed according to strict guidelines.

Food safety and security, as well as factors affecting those (e.g. climate change) have been major emerging areas within the food supply chain arena and have attracted a lot of attention from various research, government and regulatory bodies. The vulnerabilities of food supply chains, that define the food safety and security risks imposed on foods, are mainly a direct result of supply chains being long, global and highly interconnected. Food and drink products are often a target of adulteration (intentional or unintentional) while supply chains usually deal with perishable products that could be harmful to consumers if they are not managed properly.

Food borne illness

The economic burden of foodborne illness includes the cost of any health care required, productivity losses and lost trade, incurred as a result of restrictions placed on trade if contaminated food is identified