Concerned Experts Caution Against Poor Handling Of Food And Dangerous Preservatives
Nigerian farmers, small and medium-scale food handlers and processors are being urged to embrace good agricultural and post-harvest food practices so as to ward off preventable morbidities and deaths that are associated with related diseases and poisoning.
As the World Food Safety Day is being celebrated globally today, the World Health Organisation (WHO) states that food-related diseases affect 1 in every 10 people worldwide, yearly. The global health agency also noted that there are over 200 diseases that are associated with several foods.
Foods post-harvest specialists, that spoke with The Guardian, bemoaned the use of chemicals used in foods to ripen fruits, the use of insecticides on smoked fish, washing of fruits with unclean water, application of unapproved chemicals on beans to prevent pests, and use of detergents in cassava bye-product foods such as fufu, and described such practices as capable of jeopardising public health.
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Furthermore, they warned Nigerians against eating foods with excessive smoke deposits, such as improperly processed smoked fish. A research finding that was published in Journal of Public Health and Epidemiology, titled, ‘Knowledge of food-borne infection and food safety practices among local food handlers in Ijebu-Ode Local Government Area of Ogun State,’ had indicated that an estimated 47.8 million, two million, and 750,000 people in the United States, United Kingdom and France, respectively, become ill due to consumption of foods containing pathogens or disease-causing substances.
In Australia, food-borne illnesses were estimated to cause no less than 5.4 million cases each year, causing 18,000 hospitalizations, 120 deaths, causing 21 million people to be absent from work, and resulting in 1.2 million consultations with doctors and 300,000 people receiving antibiotic prescriptions. Additionally, it noted that an estimated 70 percent of diarrheal episodes in developing countries were associated with the consumption of contaminated foods (WHO, 2008).
Dr. Oluwatoyin Oluwole, the Director of Research and Head of Food Technology Department, Federal Institute of Industrial Research Oshodi (FIIRO), stated that given the extremely perishable nature of most foods at harvest (fruits and vegetables, after harvest, for instance contain high moisture content and physiological activities, including respiration, as well as the traditional harvesting methods often employed such as fruits and vegetables),“ they are often subjected to many risk factors, which often predispose them to rapid deterioration, spoilage induced by chance contaminating pathogenic organisms.”
“Consequently, there arise some urgent needs to prevent food-borne diseases and deaths in which food handlers and processors are the major actors. Food handlers, from the farm gate, need to be taught the importance of good hygienic practices, including high level of sustainable hygiene of contact surfaces, especially the storage containers used for moving the produce from one point to another.”
SOURCE: The Guardian
