Be informed to ensure that the food on your plate is safe to eat. This is the message of this year’s World Health Day on today. According to World Health Organisation, unsafe food is linked to the deaths of an estimated 2 million people annually. As our food supply becomes increasingly globalized new threats are constantly emerging. Food containing harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites or chemical substances is responsible for more than 200 diseases, ranging from diarrhoea to cancers.
Food is basic need of every living organism. Also it is associated with health, comfort, stress reduction, pleasure, security, power, energy and reward. And when we talk about food, food safety and food security affects everyone who eats food and unfortunately these are overlooked mostly. In Pakistan we have seen increasing number of hungry people over the years. Food security experts and international agencies blame that escalating food prices, economic slowdown, poverty, armed conflicts, terrorism, energy crisis, floods and political instability are major factors.
Safe food is a food that is “free of toxins, pesticides, chemical and physical contaminants, and microbial pathogens such as bacteria, parasites and viruses that can cause illness”. Despite the advances in food item processing and production technology, providing safe food to masses is still an unachievable goal and a matter of great concern. Producers use low standard raw material such as contaminated water, food colors, flavors, fats and oils while preparing food items that go completely unchecked due to weak legal and regulatory procedures. Addition of chemicals, salts and preservatives adversely affect health of consumers.
The average Pakistani family is eating dangerous dyes, sawdust, soapstone, harmful chemical, surf, chalk and many other substances mixed with edibles. High levels of pesticides contents are present in grains, fruits and vegetables. Due to lack of fresh clean water, people drink water that is high in fluoride, impurities, harmful pesticides and chemical content. Consumption of such impure water makes people prone to disease of bones and cancers. Pakistan, burdened by over 180 million people, carries a heavy burden of diseases because of poor health care delivery system, lack of awareness & ignorance about hygiene, health and disease. Many diseases are preventable through vaccination or immunization and simple awareness e.g. we can get rid of diarrhoea, dysentery, gastroenteritis, typhoid, hepatitis A etc. just by providing clean portable water.
Delays in post-harvest management, packaging and transportation of foods, especially the perishable commodities, increase the risk of microbial food borne illness. It is a widespread but often unrecognized sickness that affects most people at one time or another. Usually symptoms disappear within a few days, but in some cases there can be more long-lasting effects such as joint inflammation or kidney failure. People who are at higher risk of becoming seriously ill include infants, young children, the elderly, pregnant women, those taking certain medications for cancer, and diabetes that weaken their immune systems.
Apart from adulteration, food insecurity has also worsened the situation. Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. Unfortunately majority of our population is suffering from food insecurity either they don’t have money to buy food or they have money but food choices are unhealthy. So, in both cases health is at risk. Some are suffering from nutritional deficiencies due to lack of food and some are having health issues or deficiencies due to overeating of refined or processed foods. They all burden, already challenged, health department and national economy.
So, we can say that though food is the basic necessity for sustenance of life but pure, fresh and healthy diet is most essential for the health of the people, and without any doubt “community health is a national wealth”. So, we should ensure pure and healthy food for ourselves and our families to live a healthy life. Ensuring the food safety and food security is a shared responsibility among producers, industry, government and consumers. A multi-sectorial effort from expertise of nutrition, agricultural sciences, human and veterinary medicines and health economics along with educating local community is the ultimate need for food safety and security.