-: FOOD HYGIENE:-

CONTENTS:-
1) Introduction
 Classification of food
 Food definition
 Food surveillance
 Recent food safety scams in India
 Food born Diseases
 Organization work towards food
2) Food hygiene/ Food safety:
 Food production & food fortification
 Food Additives
 Food Preservation
 Food processing
 Food purchase
 Food Storage
 Food preparation & conservation
 Food Toxicity
 Food Allergy
 Food adulteration & their act
 Role of Nurse
 Conclusion
 Introduction
Food is one of the physical environments. Adequately
hygienic food is necessary for maintaining the health, vitality
and well being of an individual.
Food also acts as an important vehicle of transmission of
the diseases because of its liability for contamination at any
point during its journey from producer to the consumer.
So, due precautions must be taken while procuring,
storing, processing & cooking of foods.

Classification of food:
1.By Origin:
 Animal origin
 Vegetable origin
2. By chemical composition:
 Protein
 Fats
 Carbohydrate
 Vitamins
 Minerals
3. By function:
 Body building foods- rich in protein (e.g. meat, fish, milk,
egg etc)
 Energy yielding- rich in carbohydrate (e.g. cereals, sugars,
ghee & oil)
 Protective food- Rich in vitamins & minerals (e.g. fruits,
vegetables etc.)
4. By nutritive values:
Cereals & pulses, vegetables, nuts & oil, seeds, fruits, animal
foods, fats, oils, sugar, jiggery, condiments & spices,
miscellaneous food etc.

Definition:
Food:
it means a raw, cooked, or processed edible
substance, ice, beverage, or ingredient used or intended
for use or for sale in whole or in part for human
consumption, or chewing gum.
(Food and Drug Administration 1999 Food Code)
Adulteratant:
It means any material which is could be employed for
making the food unsafe or sub-standard or mis-branded
or containing extraneous matter.

Food safety:
It means assurance that food is acceptable for human
consumption according to its intended use.
(Food Safety And Standards Act, 2006)

Food safety/ Food Hygiene:

All condition and measures that are necessary
during the production, processing, storage,
distribution and preparation of food to ensure
that it is safe, sound, wholesome and fit for
human consumption.
Food safety management:
It means the adoption good manufacturing practices, good
hygienic practices, good & critical control point & such other
practices as may specified by regulations of food business.
(Food safety & standard act- 2006)

Food Surveillance:
 It is essential for the protection and maintenance of
community health.
  It implies the food safety or food hygiene.
 The most important international program carrying out
activities in the field of food hygiene is the joint FAO/WHO
food standard program.
 The declaration of Alma-Alta considered food safety as an
essential component of primary health care.

Recent Scam of India:

 Diarrhoeal diseases are linked to the deaths of an
estimated 2 million people annually (mostly children)
including food borne illness are attributed to
contaminated food or water.
Food Born Diseases:
When certain disease-causing bacteria or pathogens
contaminate food, they can cause food borne illness, often
called “food poisoning”. Foods that are contaminated may not
look, taste or smell any different from foods that are safe to
eat.
Salmonella, Campylobacter, Listeria and Escherichiacoli
(E. coli) are the most common bacteria causing food borne
illness
Bacteria grow and multiply on some types of food more easily
than on others:
 meat
 poultry
 dairy products eggs
 seafood
 cooked rice
 prepared fruit and potato salads.
Responsible factor for a food-borne illness:
• Not cooking food thoroughly (particularly meat and meat
products);
• Not storing food that needs to be chilled at below 5 °C
correctly;
• keeping cooked food unrefrigerated for more than an
hour;
• eating food that has been touched by someone with
diarrhoea and vomiting
• Cross-contamination, such as placing cooked food on a
plate that had raw meat.
WHO’s Recommanded Five key point to safer food;
1. Keep clean :
  Thoroughly wash raw fruits and vegetables with tap water.
 Keep clean hands, kitchen and chopping board all the
time.
2. Separate raw and cooked food:
 Do not mix raw food and ready-to-eat food.
 Do not mix raw meat, fish and raw vegetables.
3. Cook thoroughly :
 Thoroughly cook all meat, poultry and seafood, especially
shellfish
 Reheat all leftovers until they are steaming hot.
4. Keep food at safe temperatures:
 Refrigerate cooked food within two hours of preparation.
Never defrost food at room temperature.
 Defrost frozen food in the refrigerator, cold water or in the
microwave.
5. Use safe water and raw materials:
 Use safe drinking water for food preparation.
 Check use-by dates and labels while buying packed food.
 Heat all leftovers until they are steaming hot.
 Organization work towards Food
hygiene:
1.Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS):
The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is the public
health agency. Department of Agriculture responsible for
ensuring that the nation's commercial supply of meat, poultry,
and egg products is safe, wholesome, and correctly labeled and
packaged.
2. Food and Drug Administration (FDA):
The FDA is charged with protecting consumers against
impure, unsafe, and fraudulently labeled products. FDA is also
responsible for the safety of drugs, medical devices, biologics,
animal feed and drugs, cosmetics, and radiation emitting
devices.
3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):
CDC leads federal efforts to gather data on food-borne
illnesses, investigate food-borne illnesses and outbreaks, and
monitor the effectiveness of prevention and control efforts in
reducing food-borne illnesses.

4.Food Safety and Standards:

It is an autonomous body established under the  Ministry
of Health & Family Welfare & Government of India. The FSSAI
has been established under the Food Safety and Standards Act,
2006 which is a consolidating statute related to food safety and
regulation in India.
FSSAI is responsible for protecting and promoting public
health through the regulation and supervision of food safety.

Food Production:
Most food is now produced by large farms, processed
industrially, and sold in supermarkets and multinational food
outlets.
Modern food production has reduced the cost and
increased the variety of food available, but this centralisation of
the food supply presents an opportunity for food-borne
pathogens and toxins to infect and poison large numbers of
consumers.
Food Fortification:
Food fortification or enrichment is the process of
adding micronutrients (essential trace elements and vitamins)
to food.
Sometimes it's a purely commercial choice to provide
extra nutrients in a food, while other times it is a public health
policy which aims to reduce the number of people with dietary
deficiencies within a population. 
Definition:
As defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) and
the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations
(FAO), 
"The practice of deliberately increasing the content of an
essential micronutrient, ie. vitamins and minerals (including
trace elements) in a food irrespective of whether the nutrients
were originally in the food before processing or not, so as to
improve the nutritional quality of the food supply and to
provide a public health benefit with minimal risk to health"

Main methods of food fortification:

1. Commercial and industrial fortification (wheat flour, corn

meal, cooking oils)
2. Biofortification (breeding crops to increase their
nutritional value, which can include both conventional
selective breeding, and genetic engineering)
3. Home fortification (example: vitamin D drops)

Examples of foods and beverages that have been fortified and

shown to have positive health effects:
 Iodized salt
 Folic acid
  Niacin
 Vitamin-D
 Fluoride
 Calcium
 White rice
 Zinc etc
Food Additives:
Food additives  are substances added to food to
preserve flavor or enhance its taste, appearance, or other
qualities.
For example,
o Preserving food by pickling (with vinegar), 
o Salting as with bacon,
o Preserving sweets or using sulfur dioxide as
with wines.

Categories:
Food additives can be divided into several groups:
I. Acidulates 
 Acidulates sour or acid taste. Common acidulates
include vinegar, Citric Acid, lactic acid etc.
II. Acidity regulators 
Used for controlling the pH of foods for stability or to
affect activity of enzymes.
III. Anticaking agents 
Keep powders such as milk powder from caking or
sticking.
IV. Antifoaming and foaming agents 
Reduce or prevent foaming in foods. Foaming agents do
the reverse.
V. Antioxidants 
Such as Vitamin-C are preservatives by inhibiting the
degradation of food by Oxygen.
VI. Food coloring 
Added to food to replace colors lost during preparation
or to make food look more attractive.
VII. Fortifying agents
Vitamins, minerals, and dietary supplements to increase
the nutritional value
VIII. Emulsifiers 
Allow water and oils to remain mixed together in
an emulsion, as in mayonnaise, ice cream, and
homogenized milk.
IX. Flavors 
Additives that give food a particular taste or smell, and
may be derived from natural ingredients or created
artificially.
 X. Sweeteners 
Added to foods for flavoring. Sweeteners other
than Sugar are added to keep the 
XI. Thickener:
Substances which, when added to the mixture, increase
its viscosity without substantially modifying its other
properties.
Food Preservation:
Food preservation prevents the growth of microorganisms
(such as yeasts) or other microorganisms as well as slowing
the oxidation of fats that cause rancidity.

Food preservation may also include processes that inhibit

visual deterioration, such as the enzymatic browning reaction
in apples after they are cut during food preparation.

Various Methods of Food preservation:

I. Drying is the oldest method of food preservation. This

method reduces water activity which prevents bacterial
growth. For example, Meat and fruits like apples, apricots
and grapes are some examples of drying with this method.
II. Freezing is keeping prepared food stuffs in cold storages.
Potatoes can be stored in dark rooms but potato
preparations need to be frozen.
III. Smoking is the process that cooks, flavors and preserves
food exposing it to the smoke from burning wood.
 IV. Vacuum packing creates a vacuum by making bags and
bottles airtight. Since there is no oxygen in the created
vacuum bacteria die. Usually used for dry fruit.
V. Salting: Salting also known as curing removes moisture
from foods like meat.
VI. Pickling means preserving food in brine (salt solution) or
marinating in vinegar (acetic acid).
VII. Sugar is used in syrup form to preserve fruits or in
crystallized form if the material to be preserved is cooked
in the sugar till crystallization takes place like candied peel
and ginger. Lye also known as Sodium hydroxide turns
food alkaline and prevents bacterial growth. 
VIII. Canning and bottling means sealing cooked food in sterile
bottles and cans. The container is boiled and this kills or
weakens bacteria.
IX. Jellying is preserving food by cooking in a material that
solidifies to form a gel. Fruits are generally preserved as
jelly.
X. Potting is a traditional British way of preserving meat by
placing it in a pot and sealing it with a layer of fat.
XI. Jugging is preserving meat by stewing it in an earthenware
jug or casserole. Brine or wine is used to stew meat in and
sometimes the animal’s blood.
XII. Pulsed Electric Field Processing is a new method of
preservation that uses brief pulses as strong electric field
to process cells. This is still at an experimental stage. 
XIII. Modified atmosphere preserves food by operating on the
atmosphere around it. Salad crops that are difficult to
preserve are packaged in sealed bags with an atmosphere
 modified to reduce the oxygen concentration and increase
the carbon dioxide concentration.
XIV. Controlled use of organism is used on cheese, wine and
beer as they are preserved for a longer time. This method
uses benign organisms to preserve food by introducing
them to food where they make an environment which is
not suitable for harmful pathogens to grow.
XV. High pressure food preservation is a method that presses
foods inside a vessel by exerting 70,000 pounds per square
inch or more of pressure. This disables microorganisms
and prevents spoilage but food retains its appearance,
texture and flavour.
XVI. Modified Atmosphere Packaging extends the shelf life of
fresh food products. The atmospheric air inside a package
is substituted with a protective gas mix which ensures that
the product will stay fresh for as long as possible.

Food Processing:
Food processing is the transformation of agricultural
products into food, or of one form of food into other forms.
Food processing includes many forms of processing foods,
from grinding grain  to make raw flour to home cooking to
complex industrial methods used to make convenience foods.
Benefits of food processing include:
 Toxin removal, preservation,
 Easing marketing and distribution tasks,
 Increasing food consistency.
Types of food processing:
1. Primary food processing is necessary to make most foods
edible, such as drying, threshing, winnowing,
and milling grain, shelling nuts etc.
2. Secondary food processing turns the ingredients into
familiar foods, such as bread.
3. Tertiary food processing has been criticized for
promoting over-nutrition and obesity, containing too much
such and salt, too little fiber, and otherwise being
unhealthful.
Food Purchase:
Food purchasing can be a boring or interesting adventure
depending on one’s approach to it. To make food purchasing
interesting have to know much about the market place and
ways in which can make the most out of food budget.
Tips for shopping
1. When buying food, choose the form that you can easily
handle and which you can afford.
2. Choose the type and location of market appropriate to
your needs.
3. Compare prices and quality of commodity before you buy.
4. Buy foods in bulk if you have storage facilities and money.
It is cheaper.
5. Do not shop when you are hungry; it makes you buy more
than necessary.
6. Do not take children along when you go shopping; they
make you buy unnecessary things.
7. Avoid impulse buying, that is buying things you did not
plan for.
8. When you buy canned or packaged foods, look out for the
expiry date or ‘use by’ date. It is the last day a product is
considered fresh. A food may still be safe to eat after this
date but the taste and nutrient quality may not be good.

Do not buy processed foods when the following signs are

seen:-
 1. Cans are bulging or dented because they may cause food
poisoning
2. Rusty can may contain spoiled food
3. Frozen food packages that are soft or soggy may have
thawed for a long time and May be spoiling
4. Refrozen foods, this can be detected as stained packages
or crystallized products
5. Opened or damaged packages
6. Moldy or coloured dried foods
7. Meat or fish that has dull or slimy surface

Food Storage:
Food commodities that are purchased from the market must
be stored well if they must keep their quality. As soon as return
from the market you need to group your item into the following
categories:-

 Dry storage items

 Frozen items
 Fresh items

There are three types of food storage:-

 Dry storage
 Refrigerator storage
 Freezer storage
Dry storage:
Foods that need to be kept dry are usually stored in
cabinets or store rooms. Cereals, canned foods packaged foods
and other dry food items should be kept in cool dry and clean
places in the kitchen.
Refrigerator storage:
Refrigerator temperatures should be between 0 to 7
Celsius Temperatures in the refrigerator vary depending on the
part of the refrigerator.
Freezer storage:
The temperature of the freezer should be - 18oC or below.
Frozen foods their original packages in the freezer. Foods to be
frozen should be wrapped in moisture and vapour proof
wrapping and arranged properly in the freezer.

Food Preparation & conservation:

Food Prepration is preparing food before the meal. Its done by
following manner:

1. Check there is clean water and cleaning equipment (soap,

scrubber, jug).

2. Check there are no insects around.

3. Wash hands with soap and running water, including nails.

4. Set up all the equipment you need and check that

surfaces, utensils, containers are clean.

5. Wash foods in clean water.

6. Prepare foods (rubbish from plant foods goes to the

compost).
 7. Cover cooked food and put in a cool place.

8. Clear up and wash up.

CONSERVATION OF NUTRIENTS is saving nutrients during the

process of cooking is called conservation.

Guidelines to minimize nutrient losses during preparation:

1. Choose fresh foods that are not over-ripe, bruised, cut or

scraped.
2. Wash vegetables before cutting. Soaking or washing time
should be reduced to minimize nutrient loss.
3. Cut vegetables into big pieces so that exposure of vitamins
to water is less while cooking and washing.
4. Use a vegetable peeler to remove skin as it helps remove
only a very thin layer of skin.
5. Use minimum water for cooking. Bring the water to boil
and add the vegetables to cook.
6. Cook vegetables by steaming and pressure cooking to
conserve nutrients.
7. Cover the vessel with a lid while cooking as it hastens
cooking.
8. Vegetables salads should be prepared just before serving
to conserve nutrients.
9. Use acids such as lime juice or vinegar to salads as it
prevents loss of Vitamin C since Vitamin C is stable in acid
10. Store foods in a cool, dark place.
 11. When boiling, add the raw food to the boiling water
rather than to cold water.
12. Steaming is a way of cooking with a minimum amount
of water.
13. If possible use the cooking water for gravies, sauces
or soups as it is a source of water-soluble vitamins and
elements (minerals).
14. Cook for the minimum time necessary to make the
food palatable and safe.
15. Do not use baking soda to help keep the green colour
of vegetables, as this increases loss of vitamin C.
16. Do not use copper utensils. (Copper helps to destroy
vitamin C.)
17. Soak whole pulses overnight and other dhals for one
hour before cooking.
18. Use the leftover dhal water to make rasam or sambar.

Food Toxicity:
Food Allergy:
Food allergy is an abnormal immune response to food The
signs and symptoms may range from mild to severe. They may
include itchiness, swelling of the tongue, vomiting, diarrhea,
hives, trouble breathing, or low blood pressureT.his typically
occurs within minutes to several hours of exposure. When the
symptoms are severe, it is known as anaphylaxis.
 Common foods involved include  cow'smilk,
peanuts, eggs, shellfish, fish, tree,nuts, soy, wheat, rice,
and fruit.