Food is one of the basic needs of humans. We may easily make a safe food unsafe while processing the final items to be consumed. It may be intentional as well as unintentional food and dietary practices.
It is very interesting, but a big concern that occasionally people make their safe foods unsafe. It’s the result of wrong perceptions of specific nutrients or foods. If someone doesn’t have any diseases, then they don’t need to avoid any specific nutrients or foods. Based on his or her needs, he or she may consume everything. Being a diseased person, one needs to avoid specific foods or nutrients as per the suggestion of his or her dietitian or nutritionist.
It is observed that people are worried about consuming fats or oils. So, they discard cooked oils from curries. It’s also quite common to see people using newspapers to reduce/soak oil from paratha or other fried items in Bangladesh. What is happening? They are promoting contaminated food consumption because of panicking oils. But required or limited amounts of fats or oils are not as harmful as expected. So, it is better to reduce the amount of both oil and paratha or other fried items. As a result, healthy eating will be promoted through safe foods.
Nowadays, people are using lots of food additives while processing food. These may be harmful to your health. For example, if you add more heat or use ingredients containing chemical preservatives such as vinegar, catchup, etc. Those may denature proteins and reduce the nutritional value of your foods. As a result, reversible or irreversible denature of proteins may lower or reduce the nutritional value of those foods. At the same time, some of the ingredients may be irritating to your digestive system as well as harmful to intestinal beneficial microflora. These promote an inflammatory environment and favor the growth of harmful microorganisms. So, food with fewer additives or in its natural form is safe, suggested, and more beneficial for healthy eating.
Household helping hand-need to ensure personal hygiene and sanitation. Otherwise, each visit may start a new cycle of contamination. So, the number of visitors may increase the number of contamination or cross-contamination cycles.
Further for reducing source and cross-contamination, we need to introduce proper intervention for the transitions between KAP (Knowledge, Attitude and Practices). These could be achieved by following things:
- Proper education to general people that is very easy and simple to follow,
- Updated and coordinated guidelines based on local and international norms and practices,
- Availability and accessibility of local resources such as audio-visual aids,
- Proper and timely implementation of food regulatory laws to reduce fake and non-scientific messages for promoting unhealthy food purchases and uses by general particularly illiterate people,
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If you are interested to learn more, please visit following links:
Inedible Food Wastes: Alternative Uses | Learn Nutrition Online
Sharing Meals: May Be A Practical Option To Maintain Individual Weight | Learn Nutrition Online
For more learning, please visit following pages that would help you as well as others by you to adapt healthy practices to make your foods safe.
Safer Food Choices | Food Safety | CDC
Food Safety | Food Safety | CDC
Understanding Hazards to Safe Food • Food Safety Institute
Safe Food Preparation | Restaurant Food Safety | CDC
Why Preserved Foods Aren’t Always Safe: Key Food Storage Risks Explained
Keep Food Safe! Food Safety Basics | Food Safety and Inspection Service
*Featured image credit goes to https://www.pexels.com