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Diet and Nutrition |
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Food Safety |
Food safety is a scientific discipline describing handling, preparation, and storage of food in ways that prevent foodborne 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.
Genetic engineering is the largest food experiment in the history of the world. We are all the guinea pigs.
There are about 40 varieties of genetically engineered crop approved for marketing in the U.S. As a result, 60-70% of the foods on your grocery shelves contain genetically engineered (GE) components.
Genetically engineered foods contain substances that have never been a part of the human food supply. They are not subjected to rigorous pre-market safety testing.
Transgenic foods may mislead consumers with counterfeit freshness. A luscious-looking, bright red genetically engineered tomato could be severalweeks old and of little nutritional worth.
Genetically engineered crops contain genes which confer resistance to antibiotics. These genes may be picked up by bacteria which may infect us.
Food handling safety risks at home are more common than most people think. The four easy lessons of Clean, Separate, Cook, and Chill can help prevent harmful bacteria from making your family sick.
Despite of improvement in production, processing and packaging, more poisons seem to be entering our food chain. For example Indian spices or 'masalas' add taste and flavour to food and also help in digestion. Some spices like turmeric have an antiseptic effect on the body. But what is most important is the quality of these ingredients. Every consumer wants to get maximum quantity of a commodity for as low a price as possible. This attitude of the consumer being coupled with the intention of the traders to increase the margin of profit, where the quality of the commodity gets reduced through addition of a baser substance and / or removal of vital elements also commonly known as food adulteration.
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