Food quality and safety

Abstract

Food quality has been defined as the degree of excellence and includes taste, appearance, nutritional and hygienic factors like microbial interventions in food handling equipments, persons and subsequently transferred to the food. Nutritional quality is concerned with availability of major and minor constituents such as carbohydrate, protein, fat, acid, fibre, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and food pigments. The sensory quality like taste, appearance, texture, juiciness, etc. is of utmost importance. A new food product which is intended to be launched is meant for a particular group of people and this product must be acceptable to that group. For example all meat products, developed, are supposed to be consumed by non-vegetarian group. There are distinct methods of sensory evaluations conducted by trained or semi-trained or untrained panellists. The hygienic quality is of great concern and it take cares of the health hazard caused in raw materials, in plant, in industry premises during unloading, performing different unit operations; packaging, storing and during transportation of course hazard may be physical, chemical, biological or quality hazard. Sanitation and hygiene are concerned with safe food production and processing. It includes the machine, equipment, plant and of course persons working in the industry. Different food statutory organisations provide guide lines to protect the health of the consumer, to ensure fare practices in food trades, to promote coordination of the work on food standards undertaken by various agencies and also to prepare the draft standards. Some of the Food Statutory organizations are Food Product order (FPO), Bureau Indian Standard (BIS), Agriculture Produce (Grading and Marketing) (AGMARK), World Health Organization (WHO), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC). The objective of the present chapter is to give information of the exact idea of food quality and safety to the food scientists, researchers and to the industrialists.