Importance of food safety

Food safety refers to routines in the preparation, handling & storage of food meant to prevent food borne illness and injury. From farm to factory to fork, food products may encounter any number of health hazards during their journey through the food supply chain. Safe food handling practices & procedures are thus implemented at every stage of the food production life cycle in order to curb these risks & prevent harm to consumers.

The cost of food recalls for companies

Failing to implement an effective food safety protocol can lead to contaminated products entering the food chain. Once the defective product has been discovered, food businesses are subject to dramatic disruptions in their operations as they manage and assume the cost for product recalls. Food recalls cost companies hug. The long-term effect that a product recall can have on consumer trust is perhaps even more costly. Some 21 percent of consumers say they would never again purchase anything from manufacturer who had to recall one of their food products. Food recalls have the following direct and indirect costs to food businesses

• Direct costs
  • Halting operations
  • Alerting interested parties
  • Logistics cost
  • Investigation costs
  • Correction costs
• Indirect costs
  • Lost sales
  • Insurance impact
  • Lawsuit
  • Lost reputation
  • Regulatory penalties

The human cost of unsafe food

The importance of food safety to modern human life would be difficult to understate. Food safety problems are a leading cause of more than 200 preventable diseases worldwide. Each year, one in ten people will suffer from food borne illness or injury. An estimated 420,000 people die every year as a result of eating contaminated food and more than a quarter of these victims are small children. In addition to the immediate human cost, inadequate food safety comes with a greater ripple effect that impedes socioeconomic progress, especially in the developing world. The World Health Organisation states that food safety, nutrition and food security are inextricably linked. A lack of safe food creates a “vicious cycle of disease and malnutrition” which overburdens public health services, disrupts social and economic progress and detracts from the quality of life.