Definition 2: Food Safety Hazard (Codex Standards)

A biological, chemical or physical agent in, or condition of, food with the potential to cause an adverse health effect.

Food safety hazards include bacteria, viruses, parasites, hazardous chemicals, and foreign materials that can cause an adverse health effect to a consumer.

In food safety management systems, hazards refer to conditions or contaminants in foods that can cause illness or injury.

It is important to understand that hazards do not refer to undesirable conditions or contaminants such as

Microorganisms are small, living uni-cellular or multi-cellular organisms. They include bacteria, viruses, yeasts, molds, and parasites. These are not all necessarily bad for humans; in fact, many can be beneficial to humans.

There are different types of microorganisms:

Helpful microorganisms can be added to foods or are found naturally in them.

In many cases, microorganisms are used in foods to help with preservation but can also be added to create unique flavors and textures.

Foods such sauerkraut and pickles utilize fermentation as a preservation process and use microorganisms to carry out this fermentation process. Other foods such as bread use fermentation as an essential part of their production.

Spoilage microorganisms affect the quality of the product, not necessarily the safety of the food. It is usually very easy to indentify when a food product is affected by spoilage, by look or taste. There can be discoloration on fruit, molds on bread, or milk that tastes sour.

In some cases spoilage microorganisms can affect the safety of products. An example is that some fruits can decay by a mold called penicillium expansum. This mold produces a toxin that can affect humans.

Any foods that are found to be spoilt should be disposed of immediately, and products in the same lot should be inspected.

Disease-causing, pathogenic microorganisms can cause illnesses that can range from mild to life-threatening. These microorganisms are the most serious, so you must develop procedures to eliminate the risk of their contaminating products.

Examples of these microorganisms that should be effectively controlled are bacteria such as Salmonella or E. coli 0157:H7. The common symptoms of these are nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, and, in serious cases, death.

Pathogens are microorganisms that cause food-borne illness. Pathogens come in three forms:

Pathogens can be found in soils; these include:

The presence of pathogens within humans is the main reason why washing your hands after using the toilet is essential when working with food.

Product Specification

It is important to be aware of the presence and number of microorganisms in food. Many raw materials, therefore, have microbiological standards. It is common in the food industry to have specifications for the absence of microbiological contaminants.

Control Mechanisms

Physical and chemical control mechanisms significantly affect the survival and multiplication of microorganisms; for example, a reduction in pH in fruit juice by the addition of ascorbic acid can prevent microorganisms from multiplying.

Time and temperature are important control points since cooking or freezing rapidly can prevent the growth of biological contaminants. Freezing usually stops the multiplication of microorganisms; however it does not kill them. Thermal processing will kill most biological hazards.

Cross-Contamination

Cross-contamination must be managed so that materials cannot contaminate others. Control systems should be in place and your staff made aware of their responsibility to prevent contamination. Your staff must also be aware of correct product handling and personal hygiene.

Cleaning and Disinfection

The equipment used for producing, processing, and storing products should be sanitized on a regular basis. It is good practice to have a cleaning schedule in place.

The packing, storage, and distribution must be controlled so that no biological hazard can contaminate or survive on food products. This process will entail suitable packaging for the product and temperature control in storage and distribution.

Conditions for Use

The directions you provide to the consumer are very important. Providing information on how to correctly store and cook the product can reduce the risks of biological hazards.

There is a perception that if something is naturally grown or raised it will not have any chemical hazards present. This belief is not true; naturally occurring chemical hazards are present in many foods. For example, there are toxins found in many varieties of mushrooms and some seafood.

In many countries there is legislation relating to the presence or level of toxins, so you should be aware If you are using foods which may contain these toxins. It would be good practice to refer to legislation and analysis samples of the product before use.

These chemical hazards are often classified as biological, but the important thing is that it be recognized as a hazard and controlled.

Examples of naturally occurring chemical hazards are

There are two types of intentionally added chemicals, direct and indirect food additives.

Direct additives are compounds such as preservatives; these include nitrites, sodium benzoate, and sulfiting agents. You must be aware of the regulations relating to the use of these compounds since legislation does differ from country to country.

Additives such as colors and nutritional additives (such as vitamins) are also direct. All direct additives must be included on all labels. You can see from the table the risks of using direct food additives improperly.

Indirect food additives include

In most cases these indirect food additives are undesirable and migrate into the food from inappropriate packaging.

There are a number of unintentionally introduced chemicals added to foods by agricultural processes, including

These substances are prohibited in certain countries. To ensure your company is complying with legislation where the food is sold, you should carefully review the appropriate legislation.

There are private standards and business-to-business requirements that can be stricter than legislative requirements, and the customer will closely scrutinize the product for the presence and level of substances that violate these standards.

Having a management system in place that indentifies sampling points and sampling levels is good practice to reduce the risk of chemical hazards. The table shows suggested areas of inspection.

Preventive maintenance of equipment is extremely important to greatly reduce the risk of physical contamination.

Equipment failure or breakage can allow physical hazards to enter foods. This happens usually during the processing stage. Routine inspections and maintenance of the equipment is good practice.

Screens and filters used in liquid processing can identify problems in equipment upstream. By regularly inspecting the screens or filters, objects from equipment (broken machine parts or rubber seals, for example) can easily be seen and further contamination reduced.

Detection equipment is very useful in identifying physical hazards in foods. There are a number of methods that can be used for different processes:

The staff can pose a risk to foods by physical hazard contamination. In order to prevent/reduce this risk, your staff must be made aware of company policies in regard to hazard prevention. An example is the wearing of jewelry.

Your staff should also be encouraged to make you aware of any risk of possible physical product contamination they observe while at work.

As a food safety manager, you must have in place an effective management system that indentifies the source and control points to reduce the risk of physical hazards. The table shows physical hazard control methods.