FOOD SECURITY PRINCIPLES

Food Security, unlike the processes of quality management, refers not to the satisfaction of customers or their requirements in relation to food, but to manage the safety of food products and ensure that these are produced, processed, distributed and marketed with full health guarantees.

It´s a right of citizens as consumers, in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Spanish Constitution, but also a must for all actors in the food chain, regulated under the various public administrations and especially in the White Paper on Food Safety published by the European Union in 2000.

The measures for the management of Food Security are based on general principles and common prevention. This is the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (APPCC) promoted by OMS and FAO, common to everyone and binding on all European and Spanish organizations. However, some sectors have developed norms and standards for the management of food safety. More implementation standards are those established French wholesalers, German and British (IFS and BRC) as disclosed in detail in previous articles in this Blog. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) promotes a series of control rules hygiene of foodstuffs, health and animal welfare, plant health and the prevention of the risk of contamination by external substances.

Also, the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) is developing the Global Strategic Framework for Food Security and Nutrition, which, in addition to the fight against hunger, pursues the right to adequate food for all human beings, laying the groundwork to ensure "the physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for food to lead an active and healthy life." So, the pillars of Security food maintained by the CFS are: permanently available, free unrestricted access, utilization and stability or maintenance of production systems, in addition to the health, safety and nutritional dimension as an integral part of these concepts. Ambitious principles, especially on a global scale, but perfectly plausible in our environment.

Finally, in 2010 the Government of Spain approved the Draft Law on Food and Nutritional Security, by which all aspects of food security, with special emphasis on the field of food composition (deletion trans fat), food distribution and marketing in schools (to prevent childhood obesity) and food advertising. Finally, the creation of a Spanish Laboratory Network Official Food Safety Control is established to improve the quality management and act effectively in prevention

With these institutional premises, it´s appropriate at this point to analyze what are the factors that promote public health, mainly related preventive practices in food hygiene. So, from the first link agricultural, livestock and fisheries, industry, manufacturing and distribution, the marketing process, and even consumers themselves, all sectors and stakeholders in the long and complex food chain, have a huge responsibility to ensure optimal levels of safety and wholesomeness of the final consumer product.

The Precautionary Principle is one of the major axes in prevention. Is to act against potential food hazards even if no prior scientific information to determine precisely the reasons that have caused. It originated in the field of environmental risk management in order to handle possible contamination without waiting for conclusive evidence. The objective is to act before any circumstance may result in risk to human, animal or plant health, based on criteria ruled by the APPCC (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points.)

Food contamination can be caused by environmental factors arising from improper display of products (temperature, light, humidity, PH) or by the chemical characteristics of these treatments or additions (the use of pesticides or preservatives). In both cases usually produce physical changes that are a breeding a perfect ground of both toxic and infectious biological pathogens.

Systems to prevent such alterations are different in relation to the type of each product, but can be estimated based on the addition or subtraction of temperature (heating and / or cooling, such as pasteurization and milk uperización) and various substances (salted, sugar, smoky, spicy...), in order to maintain stability and nutritional and organoleptic characteristics. Other methods, such as altering the level of acidity, reducing the relative humidity (drying and evaporation) or the application of industrial processes (vacuum packed lyophilization, uperisation)  are also employed in the food industry. Not forgetting those in which the onus is on the manipulator and the end consumer, being forced to watch a scrupulous aseptic processing and handling of the products, cleaning and toxic free environment, prevent cross contamination with raw food cooked, break cold chain, etc. In all cases is the responsibility of all stakeholders in the sector to increase precautionary levels and invest in research and scientific and technological development of new techniques to maintain food safety, minimizing anti-nutritional factors or allergens thereof and reducing xenobiotic compounds (additives, pesticides, fertilizers...) and toxic and infectious agents derived from processing.

As noted, both the regulatory requirements such as social health needs, a thorough knowledge of the food chain, the full information to all agents and consumers and in particular prevention, are the pillars on which the Food Security should be referred rigorously in our companies. Preserving levels of consumer confidence in our products and services through the estimation of maximum health guarantees thereof, is a primary obligation of all agri-food sector.

+info:

White Paper on Food Safety in the EU:

http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/health_consumer/library/pub/pub06_es.pdf

Global Strategic Framework for Food Security and Nutrition:

http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/cfs/Docs1112/WGs/GSF/DraftTwo/MD976_S_CFS_GSF_Draft_Two.pdf

Spanish Agency for Consumer Food Safety and Nutrition (AECOSAN):

http://aesan.msssi.gob.es/

Spanish Society for Food Safety (SESAL):

http://sesal.org/

National Center for Food Safety and Technology (CNTA):

http://www.cnta.es/