Here I am not going to talk about only fish but food as a whole. If we take a good look at quality within our food system, recent surveys conducted by various governing and testing bodies suggested that our food and food supplies are safer than ever. However, from the information available in recent news, as consumers we may be excused for thinking it is not necessarily so.
I.e.
- E. coli, Salmonella and Listeria have been found far more than we would guess in restaurants and supermarkets.
- Bovine spongiform (Mad Cow Disease) has caused countries to ban the importing of beef
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As consumers, can we ever be ensure that the food that we eat is 100% safe?
If we need assurances that our food and food supply chain is safe, from where do we begin?
ISO 22 000:2005 Food Safety Management System
Food safety issue is addressed with the September 2005, with the release of ISO 22 000:2005. ISO 22 000 is the first international Quality Standard designed to work with statutory codes and cultural prescriptions. ISO 22000:2005 is dedicated to improve the consumer confidence in the food products and processing process. ISO 22000:2005 addresses each and every link in the food supply chain, from the field to the table by focusing on our food safety management system.
What is a SAFE FOOD?
A food in which illness causing substances (Microbiological, chemical, physical), when they are present, are within acceptable levels (interpretation of “Safe Food” by FDA). The definition of “Acceptable Levels” is continually changing (for the better).
But even we informed regarding to food safety, we are not well informed about the food production process. As the supply chain and processing processes lengthened, the risk of encountering food borne hazards (biological, chemical or physical agent that is reasonably likely to cause injury or illness in the absence of its control) has increased. In that regard we need more control and its where the HACCP applies.
HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point)
A CCP (Critical Control Point) is a step in which control can be applied and is essential eliminate or prevent a food safety hazard or reduce it to an unacceptable level, or a point or procedure in a specific food system where loss of control may result an unacceptable health risk.
Examples of food supply hazards include,
- Diseases or insects
- Contamination, pesticides or bioterrorism
- Mishandling or improper preparation
- Unsanitary conditions
- Mislabeling or improper storage
- Transportation (not inherently a hazard but the more ingredients have to be shipped over greater distances, the greater the chance of Hazard)
- Lack of resources (money and people trained in food safety will always be in short supply)
There are guide lines such as The BRC standard of 1996 and HACCP (is a set of principles but not a standard) to follow, but up to now there has not been a single recognized food safety standard that applies to every link in the food supply chain. That is, not until ISO registration to ISO 22 000.
While food safety is not guaranteed simply by virtue of a standard, with implementation and ISO Compliance with a standard like ISO 22 000 up and down the food supply chain, consumers have grater confidence in food supply chain and be reasonably assured that the food they purchase is safe for them.
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