1.0-INTRODUCTION FOR FOOD SAFETY Food safety is an increasingly important public health issue.

Governments all over the world are intensifying their efforts to improve food safety. These efforts are in response to an increasing number of food safety problems and rising consumer concerns. Many people get sick each year from the food they eat. They may have diarrhea, vomiting, an upset stomach, fever, or cramps. They often think they have the flu, but the real problem is foodborne illness caused by bacteria in the food or viruses transmitted to food eaten a few hours or several days ago. Even though the United States has one of the safest food supplies in the world, there are an estimated two million cases of foodborne illness each year. Most foodborne illness can be avoided if food is handled properly. Statistics from the Centres for Disease the most commonly reported food preparation practice that contributed to foodborne disease was improper holding temperatures, followed by poor personal hygiene, inadequate cooking, contaminated equipment, and food from an unsafe source. In Malaysia, food safety and quality is an increasingly important issue. Various factors such as improper use of pesticides, veterinary drugs, use of prohibited drugs such as nitro furan, beta agonist, and 3-MCPD in local sauces, physical contamination, microbiological contamination, heavy metal contamination and environment factor have caused severe food related diseases in this country. Food related outbreaks such as Dioxin contamination, bird flu, nipah virus (Febrile Encephalitis), Foot and Mouth Diseases and Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) have brought about serious issues of public concern.

2.0-FOODBORNE ILLNESS Foodborne illness is nearly one hundred percent preventable if food is handled safely from the time it is received until the time it is served. Restaurant managers can be proactive in preventing foodborne illness by having a food safety plan and training workers their workers to follow the plan. Foodborne illness is caused by eating contaminated food. Specific costs include lost business, lawsuits, and medical costs. Most reported cases of foodborne illness are still tracked back to restaurants and so not handling food safely can be expensive. A foodborne illness is a disease that is transmitted to humans by food. Recent developments in diagnosing and tracking reported illnesses have helped the public become more aware that certain types of illness may be related to the food they ate prior to becoming sick. Foodborne illnesses are caused by eating food or drinking beverages contaminated with bacteria, parasites, or viruses. Harmful chemicals can also cause foodborne illnesses if they have contaminated food during harvesting or processing. Foodborne illnesses can cause symptoms that range from an upset stomach to more serious symptoms, including diarrhea, fever, vomiting, abdominal cramps, and dehydration. Most foodborne infections are undiagnosed and unreported, though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that every year about 76 million people in the United States become ill from pathogens, or disease-causing substances, in food. Of these people, about 5,000 die.

3.0-ZOONOSES Zoonotic diseases are a group of infectious diseases that are naturally transmitted between vertebrate animals and humans. The greatest risk for zoonotic disease transmission occurs at the human-animal interface through direct or indirect human exposure to animals, their products and/or their environments. More than 60% of the newly identified infectious agents that have affected people over the past few decades have been caused by pathogens originating from animals or animal products. Seventy percent of these zoonotic infections originate from wildlife. In addition, a number of well known and preventable zoonoses continue to occur in many countries, especially in the developing world where they mostly affect the poorest segment of human society; some are transmissible to humans through food (brucellosis, tuberculosis), through bites from infected mammals (rabies) and insects (Rift Valley Fever) or via environmental contamination (echinococcosis/hydatidosis). Any disease or infection that is naturally transmissible from vertebrate animals to humans and vice-versa is classified as a zoonosis according to the PAHO publication "Zoonoses and communicable diseases common to man and animals". Over 200 zoonoses have been described and they have been known for many centuries. They are caused by all types of agents: bacteria, parasites, fungi, viruses and unconventional agents.

Some examples of zoonoses, classified according to the type of causative agent, are given hereafter: Bacteria

Every year millions of people get sick because of foodborne zoonoses such as Salmonellosis and Campylobacteriosis which cause fever, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, malaise and nausea. Other bacterial zoonoses are anthrax, brucellosis, infection by verotoxigenic Escherichia coli, leptospirosis, plague, Q fever, shigellosis and tularaemia. Parasites

Cysticercosis/Taeniasis is caused by a parasite which infects swine and can cause seizures, headache and many other symptoms in humans. In Latin America for example, 100 out of 100 000 inhabitants suffer from this disease (estimation). Other parasitic zoonoses are trematodosis, echinococcosis/hydatidosis, toxoplasmosis and trichinellosis. Viruses

Rabies is a disease of carnivores and bats mainly transmissible to humans by bites. Almost all persons infected by rabid animals will die if not treated. An estimated number of 55 000 persons, mainly children, die of this disease in the world every year. Dogs are responsible for most human deaths. Other viral zoonoses are avian influenza, CrimeanCongo hemorrhagic fever, Ebola and Rift Valley fever.

Fungi

Dermatophytoses are superficial mycoses that may be acquired from infected animals and affect the skin, hair and nails of humans, causing itching, redness, scaling and hair loss. Another mycotic infection that can be zoonotic is sporotrichosis. Unconventional agents

The agent of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy is thought to be the cause of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) which is a degenerative neurological disease different from CJD, at present inevitably lethal in humans.

Zoonoses still represent significant public health threats, but many of them are neglected, i.e. they are not prioritized by health systems at national and international levels. They affect hundreds of thousands of people especially in developing countries, although most of them can be prevented

4.0-MICROBIOLOGICAL RISKS IN FOOD Foodborne illness caused by microorganisms is a large and growing public health problem. Most countries with systems for reporting cases of foodborne illness have documented significant increases over the past few decades in the incidence of diseases caused by microorganisms in food, including pathogens such as Salmonella, Campylobacter jejuni and enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli, and parasites such as cryptosporidium, cryptospora, trematodes. Demographic profiles are being altered, with increasing proportions of people who are more susceptible to microorganisms in food. Changes in farm practices, more extensive food distribution systems and the increasing preference for meat and poultry in developing countries all have the potential to increase the incidence of foodborne illness. Extensive food distribution systems raise the potential for rapid, widespread distribution of contaminated food products. Changes in food production result in new types of food that may harbour less common pathogens. Intensive animal husbandry technologies, introduced to minimize production costs, have led to the emergence of new zoonotic diseases, which affect humans. Safe disposal of manure from large-scale animal and poultry production facilities is a growing food safety problem in much of the world, as manure frequently contains pathogens. Changes in eating patterns, such as a preference for fresh and minimally processed foods, the increasingly longer interval between processing and consumption of foods and the increasing prevalence of eating food prepared outside the home all contribute to the increased incidences of foodborne illness ascribed to microbiological organisms. The emergence of new pathogens and pathogens not previously associated with food is

a major public health concern. E. coli O157:H7 was identified for the first time in 1979 and has subsequently caused illness and deaths (especially among children) owing to its presence in ground beef, unpasteurized apple cider, milk, lettuce, alfalfa and other sprouts, and drinking-water in several countries. Salmonella typhimurium DT104 has developed resistance to five commonly prescribed antibiotics and is a major concern in many countries because of its rapid spread during the 1990s.These changes in microbiological hazards in foods have been recognized by the World Health Assembly and by the Codex Alimentarius. The 22nd session of the Codex Alimentarius Commission and the 45th Codex Executive Committee requested FAO and WHO to convene an international expert advisory body similar to the Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) and the Joint Meeting on Pesticide Residues (JMPR) on the microbiological aspects of food safety to address in particular microbiological risk assessment. The results of these risk assessments will provide the scientific basis for measures to reduce illness from microbiological hazards in foods. Effective management of microbiological hazards is enhanced through the use of tools such as Microbiological Risk Assessment (MRA) and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) systems. Sound microbiological risk assessment provides an understanding of the nature of the hazard, and is a tool to set priorities for interventions. HACCP is a tool for process control through the identification of critical control points. The ultimate goal is improvement of public health, and both MRA and HACCP are means to that end.

5.0-RISK ANALYSIS IN FOOD The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) are in the forefront of the development of risk-based approaches for the management of public health hazards in food. The approach used is called risk analysis, and is made up of three components: 5.1-Risk assessment Risk assessment is the scientific evaluation of known or potential adverse health effects resulting from human exposure to foodborne hazards. The process consists of the following steps:

Hazard identification: The identification of known or potential health effects associated with a particular agent.

Hazard characterization: The qualitative and/or quantitative evaluation of the nature of the adverse effects associated with biological, chemical, and physical agents which may be present in food. For chemical agents, a dose-response assessment should be performed. For biological or physical agents, a doseresponse assessment should be performed if the data is obtainable.

Exposure assessment: The qualitative and/or quantitative evaluation of the degree of intake likely to occur.

Risk

characterization:

Integration

of

hazard

identification,

hazard

characterization and exposure assessment into an estimation of the adverse effects likely to occur in a given population, including attendant uncertainties.

5.2-Risk management Risk management is the process of weighing policy alternatives to accept, minimize or reduce assessed risks and to select and implement appropriate options.The four components of risk management frameworks can be summarized as follows:

Preliminary risk management activities comprise the initial process. It includes the establishment of a risk profile to facilitate consideration of the issue within a particular context, and provides as much information as possible to guide further action. As a result of this process, the risk manager may commission a risk assessment as an independent scientific process to inform decision-making.

Evaluation of risk management options is the weighing of available options for managing a food safety issue in light of scientific information on risks and other factors, and may include reaching a decision on an appropriate level of consumer protection. Optimization of food control measures in terms of their efficiency, effectiveness, technological feasibility and practicality at selected points throughout the food-chain is an important goal. A cost-benefit analysis could be performed at this stage.

Implementation of the risk management decision will usually involve regulatory food safety measures, which may include the use of HACCP. Flexibility in the choice of individual measures applied by industry is a desirable element, as long as the overall programme can be objectively shown to achieve the stated goals. Ongoing verification of the application of food safety measures is essential.

Monitoring and review is the gathering and analyzing of data so as to give an overview of food safety and consumer health. Monitoring of contaminants in food and foodborne disease surveillance should identify new food safety problems as they emerge. Where there is evidence that required public health goals are not being achieved, redesign of food safety measures will be needed.

5.3-Risk communication Risk communication is an interactive process of exchange of information and opinion on risk among risk assessors, risk managers, and other interested parties.Risk communication is an integral and ongoing part of the risk analysis exercise, and ideally all stakeholder groups should be involved from the start. Risk communication makes stakeholders aware of the process at each stage of the Risk Assessment. This helps to ensure that the logic, outcomes, significance, and limitations of the Risk Assessment are clearly understood by all the stakeholders. Information may be available from the stakeholder. Industry stakeholders may, for example have unpublished data crucial to the risk assessors, which may be an essential part of the data needed for the risk assessment. There is also information that is typically presented to the stakeholders (both industry and consumers), as an integral part of the risk analysis process.The identification of particular interest groups and their representatives should comprise a part of an overall risk communication strategy. This risk communication strategy should be discussed and agreed upon between risk assessors and managers early in the

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process to ensure two-way communication. This strategy should also cover who should present information to the public, and the manner in which it will be done.Decisions on risk communication, including what, whom and how, should be part of an overall risk communication strategy. Risk communication is most effective if undertaken in a systematic way, and generally starts with the gathering of information on the risk issue of concern. Therefore the risk manager and risk assessor must be able to briefly and clearly summarize what this issue encompasses, at an early stage, in order to elicit interest and stakeholder input Communication must then continue throughout the entire process. Once available information has been used to fully identify the hazards, and decide on and assess the appropriate risks, then the preparation and dissemination of this information is required. This will be followed by further discussion with stakeholders, leading to corrections, amendments, and additions as appropriate, resulting in the final Risk Assessment and risk analysis reports.

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5.4-Chemical risks Chemicals are the building blocks of life and are important for many, if not all, aspect of human metabolism. However, human exposure to chemicals at toxic levels, as well as nutritional imbalances, are known or suspected to be involved in causing cancer, cardiovascular disease, kidney and liver dysfunction, hormonal imbalance, reproductive disorders, birth defects, premature births, immune system suppression, musculoskeletal disease, impeded nervous and sensory system development, mental health problems, urogenital disease, old-age dementia, and learning disabilities. Possibly a significant part of these disorders and diseases can be attributed to chemical exposure, and for many (environmental) chemicals food is the main source of human exposure. Consequently, the protection of our diet from these hazards must be considered one of the essential public health functions of any country.Based on the risk assessments provided through these expert meetings, the Codex Alimentarius Commission can recommend specific measures, such as maximum limits in foods to assure that exposure does not exceed the acceptable/tolerable level of intake. Other measure can be the development of 'Codes of Practices' to reduce levels of contaminants in food. Also, levels of use for food additives can be recommended, or maximum residue levels for pesticides or veterinary drug residues when applied in accordance with good practices. The scientific advice provided through these expert meetings also often serves directly as the basis for national food safety standards.

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6.0-Food standards (Codex Alimentarius)

The Codex Alimentarius is a collection of international food standards that have been adopted by the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC).Codex Standards cover all the main foods, whether processed, semi-processed or raw. In addition, materials used in the further processing of food products are included to the extent necessary for achieving the principal objectives of the code.Codex provisions concern the hygienic and nutritional quality of food, including microbiological norms, food additives, pesticide and veterinary drug residues, contaminants, labelling and presentation, and methods of sampling and risk analysis.

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7.0-FOOD PRODUCTION

Production

Food safety begins with the suppliers of agricultural inputs to farmers and those involved in food production, since materials such as pesticides and veterinary drugs pose different risks and therefore require specific attention. Animal feeding stuffs containing pathogens, including bacteria or toxic chemicals, may also pose specific risks.Agricultural inputs, such as pesticides, fertilizers and veterinary drugs may lead to unsafe levels of these chemicals in the food supply, for instance in red meat and poultry products, farmed fish and agricultural crops. Processing

Special attention is required regarding food hygiene when animals are slaughtered at abattoirs or when milk is produced on farms, as these foods may serve as vehicles of transmission of health hazards.This category includes a wide range of processed foods that have been manufactured using complex and highly technical methods to ensure food safety, extend shelf-life, reduce spoilage and to facilitate trade. Principles of food safety management need to be strictly applied in order to minimize the risk of potential food safety hazards.

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Retail

Food retailing involves the sale of foods in supermarkets and shops and in the informal sector, such as street-food vendors and market stalls.Practices and conditions regarding storage, transport and distribution of foods can have an influence on product safety, both the national food supply and products traded internationally need to be targeted.Food handling, preparation and storage in food service establishments require special provisions with regard to hygiene, safety, pest and sanitation control, in both the formal and informal sectors. It is widely recognized that most foodborne diseases occur as a result of incorrect handling and preparation of foods for consumption. Consumer handling

Advice to consumers on the storage, handling and preparation of foods in the home is an essential element of a National Food Safety Programme. Improper handling and preparation by consumers often negate the food safety measures introduced by other sectors in the earlier stages of the food-chain.

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REFERENCE
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs237/en/ http://www.extension.iastate.edu/foodsafety/lesson/L1/L1p1.html FOOD SAFETY AND QUALITY: A STUDY OF THE EXISTING LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE REGULATIONS IN MALAYSIA by
Noriah Bt Ramli ,International Islamic University Malaysia ;2007

National Digestive Disease Clearinghouse (NDDIC) http://www.who.int/foodsafety/capacity/general/en/index.html

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