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.
There will always be food safety hazards, but they can be controlled if you understand how food becomes contaminated and how to prevent this happening.
Contamination is transference of any objectionable or harmful substances or material to food. There are three types of contamination that can potentially affect anyone:
- Microbiological contamination - contaminants include food poisoning bacteria, spoilage bacteria, moulds, yeasts.
- Physical contamination - contaminants include glass, wood, hair, plastic, dead insects, metal fragments.
- Chemical contamination - contaminants include cleaning materials, pesticide residues, perfume.
