“Food security exists when all people have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their daily energy needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life” World Food Summit 1996.
The World Food Safety Day (WFSD) is celebrated on June 7, with the primary objective of inspiring actions to help prevent and detect possible risks that are transmitted through food, to achieve food security worldwide, but at the same time contribute to improving human health, economic growth of peoples, increase agriculture, livestock, and tourism, as well as achieving sustainable development of nations.
Globally, it is estimated that about 420 thousand people die annually, affecting mostly children under 5 years of age, with 125 thousand deaths. [1]
Due to the Covid 19 pandemic, we have all been forced to take extreme measures for cleanliness, health, and personal care, including the strengthening of good hygiene practices for food or containers.
Food safety has also become increasingly important in recent years in response to the various outbreaks of food poisoning. As a result, legislation has become increasingly strict in this respect, delegating all responsibility to the owner of the product or establishment and requiring the implementation of a self-monitoring system by product manufacturers, as well as requiring analytical controls to ensure that food products comply with the microbiological criteria established in the legislation in force in the various territories.
For this reason, most countries currently establish different regulations to control the quality and safety of food at the different stages of the production and marketing chain, regulations that apply to both domestic and foreign companies that act as importers, producers, distributors, retailers, and handlers of food of various kinds, establishing the obligation to comply with analysis to verify the quality of food as a necessary requirement for the process of sanitary registration of products, and in due course for their marketing.
At the Central American level, there is RTCA 67.04.50:17 Food. Microbiological Criteria for Food Safety, which is the applicable food standard.
The quality of a product is verified through food analysis since this will determine whether the product is inadequate conditions for consumption or whether the product is deficient or lacks any health requirements that must be met.
We have the purpose of taking home a good quality food, this implies that we have to know what analysis should be performed on food and one of them is the first thing we should know: The chemical composition by quantification of the majority and minority components, this means that analyses of proteins, carbohydrates, fat, total minerals, vitamins, and minerals will be performed.
From the food point of view the established in the overall composition of a food is a mandatory preliminary step that is to obtain data that measure the nutritional effectiveness of various components and should have several techniques in food, one of them is the freshness of the food, physicochemical methods, thereby providing results with nutritional significance, and microbiological. These techniques detect the possible biochemical or enzymatic degraders in a portion of food, so we can realize that if a food has been degraded biochemically presenting oxidation in fats. Analyses in food are performed to determine foreign or natural substances that pose a danger to the consumer. [2]
Generally, this type of control is in charge of the Ministry of Health of each country, or of their Food Regulation and Control Departments and in other cases of Private Laboratories who are in charge of the work of food analysis.
This is because although food contains microorganisms that are beneficial for the manufacturing process of food and beverages, as well as for other types of products such as medicines, vaccines, or vitamins, and that are indispensable in our ecosystem and human welfare, there may also be pathogenic microorganisms, for example, Salmonella, E.coli, toxins, or other microorganisms, which if not detected promptly could endanger the health of the consumer, as they can cause infections or serious poisoning.
Thus, with the analyses carried out for the Food Sanitary Registration, there is the possibility of detecting the presence of toxic or undesirable substances that can be found in food, and that can cause damage to the health of consumers on time.
The components of food, whether water, amino acids, oils, fats, vitamins, among others, have specific properties that can be altered after changing handling and processing or natural issues, which is why carrying out analyses before authorizing the marketing of products is a relevant aspect for potential consumers.
Being able to analyze and check if the quality of food is modified or if it is contaminated is essential to distinguish whether it has become a product that poses a risk to the health of consumers or if it maintains its nutritional properties intact. [3]
It is for this reason that analysis is fundamental and indispensable to ensure food safety in the processes of storage, processing, transport, and distribution to the final consumer.
It is important to be aware of what food safety means, so knowing the quality and condition of the food we consume is essential to be certain that what we are eating meets the requirements and quality standards.
Nowadays we can know the origin, nutritional composition, and traceability of each food that reaches our table, thanks to the involvement of all the agents of the sector that help to control the products and raw materials throughout the food chain.
Finally, it is important to mention that international food trade is regulated by the World Trade Organization (WTO), ensuring that all food trade is controlled by standards, guidelines, and recommendations of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC or IPPC). Standards, guidelines, and other recommendations have become the basis for safe food production and consumer protection in the international food trade. [4]
[1] https://www.paho.org/es/campa%C3%B1as/dia-mundial-inocuidad-alimentos-2020
[2] http://musoqwaira.blogspot.com/2009/04/importancia-de-los-analisis-de-loss.html
[3] https://www.fichatec.com/blog/analisis-quimico-de-los-alimentos/
[4] https://www3.paho.org/hq/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10834:2015-justificacion-e-importancia-del-sistema-haccp&Itemid=41432&lang=es