Times were when we didn’t think twice about what food we ate! Recent times, however, are showing that big brands have been entering big controversies. So much is in the news and all for the wrong reasons. It raises the pertinent -question…..how safe is the food we eat?
Food is close to every individual’s heart and is actually a culture of the society. It is the very basic necessity of life. Several factors such as food trade and its globalization, transportation of foods, changing trends, tastes and eating habits along with seasonality of foods have paved the path for Food Preservation and Processing Technologies. On the other hand, foodborne illnesses arise mainly from contamination of food resulting from improper handling and processing, under-cooking, or improper storage of food. Therefore, food has a limited shelf life and needs to be processed, preserved and protected.
The need for increasing the shelf life of food proved to be one of the major drivers of rapid developments in the Food Processing Industry. There are constantly evolving technologies involving chemical processes or physical processes catering to the changing trends and requirements. Novel Food Additives are needed to improve and provide better flavors or colors, to improve texture, to compensate for nutrition, and other properties of foods. A whole body of research looks at these various aspects of Food Technology and the market for Food additives having different functions is growing steadily (egs. colors, texturizers, flavors, etc. For details see Markets and Markets reports on Food Additives).
Added to this is the fast pace of life resulting from increasing industrialization and more and more women entering the work force leading to lesser and lesser times for conventional cooking. This has further fuelled the need for processing food, for convenience foods and the ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat varieties. There is a steep rise in consumption of bakery products, confectionery products and fried foods in the developed economies and the developing economies are not far behind often proving to be the emerging, better markets.
However, it is certain that irrespective of these growing needs of modern times, there can be no trade-off between technology and safety. On the flip side, these technologies may actually result in depleting the food of essential nutrients like vitamins and proteins on one hand and adding unwanted, unhealthy contaminants on the other.
So, what are the common contaminants of food? Microbial pathogens such as bacteria like E. coli, Campylobacter, Listeria, Salmonella-Shigella, some fungi like Candida, Aspergillus, viruses, GMOs, environmental toxins, food allergens and adulterants, residues of drugs and agricultural chemicals are all the most commonly found food contaminants, introduced into food due to processing and handling.
WHO statistics show that there are as many as 200 different diseases that can spread due to unsafe food. Food borne and water borne diarrheal diseases kill an estimated 2 million people every year. Chemicals, heavy metals and toxins which contaminate food can cause long term illnesses such as Cancer and neurological diseases. Several outbreaks of food borne illnesses and poisoning have continued to occur over the years. Undoubtedly, safety of food is a primary public health concern across the world. (Ref- http://www.who.int/features/factfiles/food_safety/facts/en/index8.html).
The result is that every country now has formulated strict regulations for the safety and quality of food. These norms are becoming increasingly stringent and are being enforced in every country across the globe. In addition, the awareness of the importance of food safety and concern is increasing in the consumers themselves thereby propelling the demand for safe and tested food.
This brings us to the question, how can food safety be tested and how can it be maintained? Firstly, as per the WHO, to improve food safety, a multitude of different professionals need to work together, making use of the best available science and technologies. Different governmental departments and agencies, encompassing public health, agriculture, education and trade, need to collaborate and communicate with each other and engage with the civil society including consumer groups (ref. http://www.who.int/features/factfiles/food_safety/facts/en/index8.html).
Secondly, several Food Safety Testing technologies are available which help evaluate food right through the value chain through all the processes of food processing, to its packaging, storage and distribution/transportation. Testing is needed for everything from raw materials used in food preparation, to the finished product, to storage and distribution facilities. A foodborne outbreak indicates that the food processing system has been compromised and needs improvement.
The markets for these testing technologies have in fact been growing steadily. The market for Food Safety Testing in 2013 was USD 9.91 billion. With a CAGR 0f 7.2%, as per a Markets and Markets report, the Food Safety Testing Market is projected to reach USD 15.04 billion with a volume of 1.15 billion tests by 2019 (for more details see Markets and Markets Food Safety Testing report). The report studies different types of contaminants in food, types of food and the technologies that help in detecting them thereby determining the safety of food and the raw material that goes into its production.
Food Diagnostic Technologies help to detect the presence of adulterants, contaminants, and analyze nutrient composition of the food samples. They include a wide range of hybridization-based systems such as PCR and microarrays, chromatography-based systems; spectrometry-based systems; biosensors; immunoassay-based systems; and testing kits. This market will be worth 10 billions by 2019 (for more details see Markets and Markets Food diagnostic technologies report).
End-point testing i.e. finished product testing tells us whether a finished product is fit for consumption. That may not always be enough. Several new technologies are available to track food through its entire value chain thereby allowing quick detection of the root cause of contamination of food. The food traceability market is projected to grow at a CAGR of about 9% to reach $14.30 billion by 2019. (For more details see Markets and Markets Food Traceability report).
Merely testing safety of food is not the answer for providing high quality safe food. The US’s proactive measures of implementing the Food Safety Modernization Act , the Food, Drugs, Cosmetics act in India are focused on the theme “Prevention is better than Cure”. The laws and guidelines they provide are monitored by different agencies like FSA in UK, FSIS in the US or likewise the FSSAI and FDA in India. Manufacturing of Food using current Good Manufacturing Practices, compliance to mandatory systems like the FDA and voluntary Food certifications and Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) all lead to introducing in-built quality into food right from the first step and therefore are crucial to the Food Industry. Several quality management systems such as ISO 22000, Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), Good Hygiene Practices (GHP), and Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) and others , together formulate food safety, from the farm to fork.
Provided there is correct implementation!
The Food Safety Ecosystem
Related Market research reports from Markets and Markets:
- Food Colors Market: http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/food-colors-market-36725323.html
- Food Safety Testing Market: http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/food-safety-testing-market.asp
- http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/food-diagnostics-systems-225194671.html
- Food Certifications Market: http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/food-certification-market-82063283.html
- Food Traceability Market: http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/food-traceability-market-103288069.html
- Food Coating and Processing Technologies: http://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/food-coating-ingredients-market-168532529.html
Date: Aug 2015.
The writer, Dr. Anita Joshi is a Biotechnology Advisor for Markets and Markets, India
