INTRODUCTION:

Food- A indispensable source of growth and life. It includes all the prerequisites inclusive of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and vitamins, etc. But due to negligence in food manufacturing, packaging, distribution, and consumer’s inurement or consequence of the environment, food gets contaminated by any physical, chemical, and biological agents. This leads to food illness and many people fall prey to it.

In a way of its feasible solution, food safety is a target that sustains the standard of food, preventing it from the detrimental chemicals and infectious pathogens such as bacteria, parasites, viruses, prions, toxins, and dispense nutrition security. It’s the prior responsibility of food manufacturers and traders to identify and characterize the food safety hazards, and food risk assessment too.

According to a recent survey, 7.69% of people of the total worldwide population- almost 1 per 10 people getting ill including infants, younger and elders after consuming contaminated food. 4,20,000 die every year due to foodborne disease. Children below the age of 5 have 40% of food disease. Approximately, 550 million people get ill and 2,30,000 people die only from diarrhea mainly due to the ingestion of unsafe food. If the ratio will increase, then how can we protect society socially and economically? Food security means people do have sufficient food. Obviously, it’s necessary but the ‘food security with food safety’ is essential. Both are interlinked¹.

Food contact articles (FCA) which are used in all food concerned processes from food production, packaging to consuming must be protected from any damage and preventing spoilage. FCA is made up of food contact materials (FCM) such as glass, imprinting ink, plastics, etc. Such chemical that comes in contact with the FCA or food packaging and it migrate towards food and eventually affects human health. Thus, amending the risk assessment (RA) of FCM and FCA will commute the exposure of hazardous chemical substances and improve human health protection².

Risk assessment can be categorized into the identification of hazards, characterization it followed by is an exposure assessment and ultimately risk characterization. According to WHO, hazard and risk both are different terms. Hazard is something that has the capacity to cause harm and risk is the possibility of this hazard to cause harm and it depends on the situation. Moreover, lower the exposure to hazard, lower the risk. Here we draw attention to some useful criteria which bettering food safety and risk analysis.

Relievement of a food security issue with academic support:

The world’s population is 7.8 billion till today and it is expected to increase to 9.7 billion by 2050³. An anticipatory exponential universal demand for food and foodborne diseases too⁴. Thus, for the upcoming future, it’s the need of the hour to develop a sustainable food chain with the safety and security to provide a healthy life to a human. Consuming unsafe food can cause an excess of 200 paradigms of diseases from diarrhea to cancer (WHO). Some academia evaluates the food groups, ingredients and provides suggestions and education related to food safety and is always updated. The network of food safety organizations is prolate globally such as Joint FAO/WHO expert committee on food additives (JECFA), Codex Alimentarius. Some of the national and regional authorities as Agence Nationale de Sécurité Sanitaire de l'alimentation, de l'environnement et du travail (ANSES- French), European food safety authority (EFSA) and Bundesinstitut fur risikobewertung (BFR- German)⁵.

The problem in risk assessment (RA) is its focus on starting substances such as FCA, FCM, or food contact chemical (FCC) of the manufacturing process and not the finished one. It should be assessed at the finality to avoid any toxicity or spoilage. Moreover, many chemicals are still not identified and it can be migrated from FCA to food. Therefore, it can’t be assessed by even RA too. So there should be avoiding the use of such unknown chemicals deliberately².

Nano-food packaging is another method to use for food safety concerns. It has also been said that the migration of nanoparticles causes a polymer matrix. But according to some experimental studies, migration quantity is sheer low compared to others. The USA is a headmost country that developed the nanomaterial safety resources for food and food packaging⁶.

Risk assessment at the Industry level:

The model of co-governance may also help to food safety. In this model, the government and industries coordinate together to build up an active food safety system to amend and warrant food safety in the manufacturing industry and ensconce consumers from infection or disease alike risks. In socio co-governance, social organization and government can be cooperating and coordinate to setting food safety standards, implement and execute it to serve the superior standard and prudent food at a lower governance cost. The accreditment and freedom of government, social forces and companies are equal in this type of concept. This can be improving food safety. Thoroughly the co-governance model shown here in Fig 1 to understand this concept visually⁷.

A perfect design for the betterment of food safety which is a preventive measure known as HACCP- Hazard analysis and critical control points. It’s progressively explicated to hem in all facets of nationwide and worldwide circulating food system. Moreover, it is the sensible and quite modern technique for keeping away pathogens from food supply⁸. It has also been promoted as the management-based regulation.

US companies follow the model system that refers to HARPC- Hazard analysis and risk-based preventive controls as amended by FDA, 2015 for preventive controls for human foods. It is anticipated with similar to the principle of HACCP which helps in discriminating and controlling the hazards from other waste which may cause harm⁹ (FSPCA, 2016). This method is running in a coordinative and cooperative way with consisting of multiple component programs (Fig. 2). Facility safety with pre-existing programs must be maintained accurately with clearance before the food safety model. Some prerequisite programs are regulated by companies and some are by government agencies as Good Manufacturing Process (GMP), and it is set by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Monitoring all the process very gingerly is essential to prevent the hazard to increase. The following Fig 2 shows the idealized model- HARPC with principles of hazard analysis and preventive controls.

Hence, the sense of hazardous wastes and preventive measures defines safety of food and security plans for flourishing and harvesting at the field level. GMP-Good Manufacturing Process is also provided guidance for farmers to diminish the hazard during growing and harvesting. From the regional to a worldwide scale, various standards and schemes have arisen to simplification of food safety management. Including Codex Alimentarius, ISO, some of the business initiatives as Global Food Safety Initiative, Global GAP and Some voluntary also there such as British Retail Consortium¹⁰.

Another way to achieve food safety is by genetically modified advanced technology. This technique may consummate human requirements with the benefits of increased yield and reducing risk. But it is harmful to humans or not is still dubious because there is no evidence that it is harmful and not proved that it is safe. Academically, GMP-Genetically Modified Products are considered to be averse to food safety¹¹. Genetic engineering has a key role in conquering problems such as fulfil the food demand of the increasing world population. Furthermore, the Chinese government invested more than 3 billion dollars on GM research. In 2015, there was a 3.7 hectors area planted with GM crops. Withal Japan also has invested in GM crops¹².

Among this all, one more hurdle towards food safety is ‘food fraud’. It is an illegal deceit to gain economic progress. International Food Safety Authorities Network (INFOSAN) provides a global platform for quick exchange of information details and sharing the data during food safety emergencies. It is managed co-operatively by both the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). It outstretched globally to solve the issue related to food fraud. As one of the ways to the prevention of food fraud, they conducted a survey also to respond in intentional contamination and managing the other fraud-related food safety issues too. It was first conducted at the Nanyang Technological University of Singapore, Nov-2016 for INFOSAN members in Asia. This type of survey is using for the target to better understand the issue at the individual national level. National agencies are responsible for food safety emergency response. The overall conclusion they derived was the lack of leadership and guidance is the root cause of overall food fraud prevention¹³.

Food security and its assessment by regulatory authorities:

Food security is defined as social and adequate economic access along with physical access, that serves active and balanced dietary requirements as well as health-related lifestyle. Patterns of distribution and production globally and climate activities or conflicts are deciding food security and food insecurity both are largely local and household occurrences. However, local conditions, which include social-environment to decide food security constraints. The religious community's role has a major role in ensuring food security. They provide a way of connecting networks and receiving support from international or other organizations. Temples, Mosques, Churches, and other religious groups represent essential sources of social resources; especially poor ones¹⁴.

The dimension of food security:

There are four dimensions of food security viz. food availability, food utilization, food access, and stability.

Food availability:

The physically available food is known as availability. The food at the level of a household may be derived from its manufacturing as well as purchased from markets. Availability particularly based on whether or not there is enough food to persistently demand nutrients and energy. Farmers should be capable to produce enough amount of food available for it as reported by Shannon et al. (2015)¹⁵.

Food access:

Households have ample opportunities to get food for a healthy diet in adequate amounts along with diversity referred to as Food access. It is primarily depending on the number of household resources and prices. Enough sources and capability to gain adequate nutritious food unaccompanied by sacrificing other necessities is a crucial feature. According to Shannon et al. (2015), there are 4 components for accessibility in the law of human rights which are represented in Table 1.

Table 1. Human rights for food, Shannon et al. (2015).

Human rights	Description
(1) Physical accessibility	The capability to acquire food in a particular country or geographical landscape
(2) Economic accessibility	The capability of human beings to purchase food or grow it which they need.
(3) Informational accessibility	It is based upon the focus of food policies, ingredients in specific food and the procedure by using the food is produced or manufactured and farmed along with available for consumption
(4)Non-discriminatory accessibility	All people are self –satisfied by the above three accessibilities in the absence of references to their religion, ethnicity, or different attributes which may aggregate the population’s food insecurity.

Food Utilization:

The socio-economic dimension of food security explains food utilization. It is assessed through knowledge and behaviors.

Stability:

It defines the temporal aspects of food security and the timeline for consideration of food security. The stability established when the supply level of the household remains constant throughout the year.

Food security is challenging currently through global dimensions of reduction in the supply of food chains as well as reduces food wastage, the need for their recovery, and use resources efficiently¹⁶. The Family is considered safe when they are capable of achieving the desired amount of food to individual members of the family. However, that could not fulfill the individual members as a food secured¹⁷.

According to the European Food Safety Authority, there are following steps of risk assessment:

· Identification of hazardous food

· Characteristics of hazardous food

· Assessment of food

· Risk Characterization

· We note from the many papers which already submitted that the Researcher community is involved actively in a full spectrum of health disease caused by food i.e. food-borne disease (Listeriosis, typhoid, etc.)

Social factors:

Food security defines the primary availability of supply of food along with the aid of economic and social institutions as well as cultural elements that associated dietary behaviors Social capital has long proved to be health-related, both directly and indirectly, and play an important role in healthier lifestyles. Moreover, it is especially beneficial when addressing community health inequalities, since it connects the characteristics of individuals and the group. In general, social capital’s importance in community relationships. The social capital interest can be measured through social connections and standards which encourage mutual coordination and cooperation profit. The characteristics of social capital viz. person interaction, the exchange of activities, and the genre of community cooperation that has significant influences on food security¹³.

Social capital plays a crucial role in food security:

Social capital is a central pillar of food security. Its impact on food security is variable at different levels such as viz. Education, employment, and demography can be modified and typically effective by enhanced social capital as reported by Paul et al (2020)¹⁴.

The following factors can be used to evaluate national food systems susceptible¹⁸.

· Presence of contaminating agent and poisoning agent in potential food.

· Able to respond effectively to emergencies.

The infrastructure of the management of safety of food along with monitoring mechanisms.

CONCLUSION:

The recent scenario of food and agricultural policies partially supports the availability of food to poor people. But in a broader view, this availability of foods must be ascertained in this drastic situation without any barriers of season. Simultaneously, the apprehension of health and sustainability increases with the environmental change, population explosion and exhaustion of natural resources. To mitigate these problems there should have concrete policy change that fulfils the complete need of the balanced diet, suits the cultural as well as demographic features and seasonal variations. In another way, the rights of every citizen towards food safety and dietary choice must be fulfilled.

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ABBREVIATIONS:

FCA- Food Contact Articles, FCC- Food Contact Chemical, FCM- Food Contact Materials, FDA- Food and Drug Administration, GMP- Good Manufacturing Process, RA- Risk Assessment, WHO- World Health Organisation

Received on 30.07.2020 Modified on 29.08.2020

Asian J. Res. Pharm. Sci. 2021; 11(1):81-85.

DOI: 10.5958/2231-5659.2021.00013.8