OMED 1351 Environmental Health and Health Protection Essay Sample

OMED 1351 Introduction to Environmental Health and Health Protection

In England, food safety and security related issues occur in many places due to cross-contamination of food items. The agency that is responsible for the issue in England is The Food Standards Agency or FSA. It mainly works with the local authorities to maintain the regulations related to food safety. The policy framework involves different acts to decrease food contamination problems. The factors involved in food contamination include the presence of different viruses or chemical products etc. In many restaurants of England the poison that has been identified is the E. coli. Any person can get poisoned with the presence of this bacteria in food or any food items. The partners who are responsible for maintaining the food safety and security in England mainly involves environmental health officers and also a health protection team. They mainly provide guidance on interventions to reduce the chances of foodborne illness.

Problems related to food safety and security

Food safety and security is very significant for public health because contaminated foods are responsible for a range of illnesses. Researchers have identified that the presence of E.coli in different food areas in England is more than 14 million. The total aerobic plate count is 14 billion. Aerobic plates define the total amount of bacteria or yeasts present in the food. The total aerobic plate count is as much as present in the feces of poop. The E. coli shouldn't have any honor type cloth if there is E.coli o157 had been in any cloth then there is a requirement of only 10 E.coli bacteria to make a person ill (Soon et al. 2020). The restaurants which don't maintain the food safety and hygiene properly in England there is a presence of 1.2 million E. coli approximately in the places. Places having rat poops can also easily contaminate food. Mild diarrhoea associated with other severe foodborne illnesses, can hamper the health of the people. There are different types of organizations and regulations related to food safety and hygiene. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) provides information and suggestions to consumers about food safety and hygiene (Kamboj et al. 2020). Local authorities also take responsibility for food hygiene regulations and inspect the different food businesses to ensure the maintenance of laws related to food safety and hygiene.

Figure 1: Problems related to food safety and security

(Source: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Interrelationship-of-food-safety-and-food-security-Source-Agrilinks-2017_fig2_350406168)

If any business is found as not obeying the law related to food hygiene then a punishable act should have to be taken against the organization including a fine and cancellation of license. There are different food hygiene-related regulations and these regulations incorporate a huge range of topics ( Ko et al. 2019). It includes storage of food, preparations of food, labeling of food, and washing hands before and after food serving. Maintaining these regulations can increase awareness about food safety and security between the food handlers.

• Storage of food: Foods must be stored and handled by the food handlers in a way to prevents food contamination-related issues. Poor personal hygiene is a major concern. It also involves cross-contamination.
• Preparations of food: Food must be cooked in the proper temperature to destroy the harmful bacteria.
• Labeling of food: Food labels should be clear and mention ingredients and amounts.

Policy Framework of food safety and security

The assurance of food safety and the maintenance of security in the population is one of the most important working areas of England. The government of England is implementing different kinds of policies and guidelines for the improvement of food safety and food security for maintaining public health. The implementation of a regulatory framework development becomes essential for the improvement of food safety and security in England.

The Act of Food Safety 1990: This guideline regarding food safety and security was produced by the government of England in 1990. This act ensures use of proper guidelines and steps in the smaller or larger food businesses. This policy consists of different kinds of food business practices which should be implemented by the organization for better food safety outcomes (Syeda et al. 2021). It also implements different guidelines for the production of food which is not harmful to human health.

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HACCP (Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Point): In England, in the area of food safety and management obtaining the HACCP certificate has become a legal obligation. It provides guarantee toward consumers for food safety. This also get integrated with different food safety management and hygiene systems that include the FSC 22000 and ISO 22000, with a wide range of scope. This has become a law in England in the year of 1990. England has officially left the EU so HACCP still apply to the food businesses (Awuchi, 2023). The food safety and hygiene regulations for each of the other countries in the UK cover the enforcement of hygiene and the principles of HACCP. One of the principle is The Food Safety and Hygiene Regulations (England), 2013.

Also, the government of England can implement different rules regarding the food safety and security management process for creating healthier foods for the entire population.

Partners involved in food safety and security

The professionals of environmental health and health protection play an important role to ensure overcoming the issue involving food safety and hygiene. Often in England, food safety is get overlooked by the FSA or Food Standards Agency while the major enforcement is carried out with the help of local environmental health officers. The consultancy-based pieces of advice can be taken from HACCP (Hazard analysis critical control point) or TACCP (Threat assessment and critical control points) training (Nayak and Waterson, 2019). The partners involved in safeguarding the public from illness occurring due to food contamination, are:

• Food and drink industry: The producers, distributors and manufacturers of food are mainly responsible for ensuring the handling of food. They are also responsible for ensuring food safety assessments and the security of the handled food products.
• Health protection team: The health protection team mainly works in collaboration with the environmental health officers. They usually collect samples and analyze the data to identify the cause of the food contamination. The team also provides important advice related to public health to prevent future outbreaks and promote the required.
• International Partners: England also makes collaboration with several international organizations including World Health Organization or WHO and also the European Food Safety Authority or EFSA regarding many global issues related to food safety.
• Government Support: The current report has identified that the agricultural industry in UK is in urgent need of the support from the different government sectors such as NGOs, financial institutions to protect the long-term security in food safety and hygiene (Ajayi et al. 2020). The current food shortage and the issues related to production lead must get prioritized by the government. It has been identified by the Nat West Group.

Interventions of food safety and security

The interventions related to food safety and security play an important role in protecting the health of the common public. The taken interventions can also decrease the load of foodborne diseases in England. The interventions taken by the government had a huge impact on the practices of food handling and also enhanced the food security standards. Because of the cross-contamination of food products, the health of the people could be at risk. Many health issues can occur due to the presence of bacteria in food.

The major health impacts occurred because of the implementation of food safety and security interventions in England. It led to a decrease in the impact of foodborne illnesses. Data collected from the HPA or Health Protection Agency identifies that the impact has become huge due to the improvement of food hygiene standards (McLauchlin et al. 2020). Some measurements for the improvement of food safety and security include hand washing, proper storage of the food and thorough pest control. Contaminated food often includes harmful viruses, bacteria and parasites that may cause diseases like cancer to diarrhoea.

Figure 2: Interventions of food safety and security

(Source: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196%2823%2900003-7/fulltext#seccestitle20)

Positive health impacts involve decreasing diseases and enhancing the programs related to food security so that individuals can get access to a various range of nutritious food items. Also, it helps to decrease food allergies which involves reducing allergen exposure with the help of allergen control and stringent labeling.

For the intervention of the diseases the department of health in England that is NHS suggest the correct terminology by the use of loperamide medicine for the patients of diarrhoea. It also helps the IBS patients as well. The management of NHS ensure that the production of food and services meets all the requirements of the legislation (Soon et al. 2020). The department also make sure of the clean equipment and no presence of the bacteria like E. coli in restaurants or any other food places.

Negative health impacts involve the increased cost which occurs due to the implementation of different food safety regulations. Later on, it may lead to increased prices of food. Limited access to the traditional food items occurs which impacts the cultural practices. In some cases chemical contaminations often lead to diseases like acute poisoning. The negative impact includes mainly adults who are at risk for developing a variety of health risks. For example, a study have found that the insecurities regarding food in adults may develop obesity is future (Yu et al. 2022). Around 14 % of all the adults in England have experienced health issues related to food security in the year of 2022. Due to the unavailability of certain food items including food waste. Also, strict safety standards left an impact on the livelihoods of the producers.

So, a balanced approach is very important for ensuring the health effects occurring due to interventions related to food safety and security in England prioritize the health of people. It also involves prioritizing public health while considering other cultural factors and potential economic factors involving food safety and security.

Summary

Food safety in England is responsible for preventing the foodborne illnesses by ensuring that the supplied food is free from any kind of contamination and are safe for consumption by the people. Application of different framework like ‘The food safety act' and ‘The General Food Law' includes increased rate of production, distribution and storage of food. This also involves decreasing severe foodborne illnesses such as diarrhoea to cancer. Whereas, food security in England denotes the availability and easy accessibility of nutritious food items for all the members of the society. Awareness can be created among people by giving HACCP or TACCP trainings. The interventions regarding the food security involves elimination of hunger and malnutrition. To monitor the situations environmental health officers and the whole health protection team id required to collect the samples and analyze the issues. A harmonized approach is required to identify the challenges and the benefits.

Recommendation

Enhancing the food safety and security in England, the approaches which can be implemented involves strengthening the regulatory oversight.

• Continuously monitoring and updating the regulations related to food safety can reduce food contamination.
• Regular inspections of various food establishments and continuous testing is required. Promoting awareness and education within people or food handlers can increase the quality of food handling (Ceniti et al. 2021).
• Food storage is a major problem faced by the establishments and the households. In the time of food storage the raw items should be kept in containers so that they stay fresh.
• It is also recommended to support local agriculture because this can reduce the dependency factor on long supply chains.

References

Journals

• Ceniti, C., Tilocca, B., Britti, D., Santoro, A. and Costanzo, N., 2021. Food safety concerns in “COVID-19 era”. Microbiology Research, 12(1), pp.53-68.
• Insfran-Rivarola, A., Tlapa, D., Limon-Romero, J., Baez-Lopez, Y., Miranda-Ackerman, M., Arredondo-Soto, K. and Ontiveros, S., 2020. A systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of food safety and hygiene training on food handlers. Foods, 9(9), p.1169.
• Kamboj, S., Gupta, N., Bandral, J.D., Gandotra, G. and Anjum, N., 2020. Food safety and hygiene: A review. International Journal of Chemical Studies, 8(2), pp.358-368.
• Ko, W.H. and Kang, H.Y., 2019. Effect of leadership style and organizational climate on employees' food safety and hygiene behaviors in the institutional food service of schools. Food science & nutrition, 7(6), pp.2131-2143.
• McLauchlin, J., Aird, H., Elliott, A., Forester, E., Jørgensen, F. and Willis, C., 2020. Microbiological quality of raw drinking milk and unpasteurised dairy products: results from England 2013–2019. Epidemiology & Infection, 148.
• Mesele, F. and Abunna, F., 2019. Escherichia coli O157: H7 in foods of animal origin and its food safety implications. Adv Biol Res, 13(4), pp.134-145.
• Nayak, R. and Waterson, P., 2019. Global food safety as a complex adaptive system: Key concepts and future prospects. Trends in Food Science & Technology, 91, pp.409-425.
• Syeda, R., Touboul Lundgren, P., Kasza, G., Truninger, M., Brown, C., Lacroix-Hugues, V., Izsó, T., Teixeira, P., Eley, C., Ferré, N. and Kunszabo, A., 2021. Young people's views on food hygiene and food safety: A multicentre qualitative study. Education Sciences, 11(6), p.261.
• Yu, Z., Jung, D., Park, S., Hu, Y., Huang, K., Rasco, B.A., Wang, S., Ronholm, J., Lu, X. and Chen, J., 2022. Smart traceability for food safety. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, 62(4), pp.905-916.
• Awuchi, C.G., 2023. HACCP, quality, and food safety management in food and agricultural systems. Cogent Food & Agriculture, 9(1), p.2176280.
• Soon, J.M., Brazier, A.K. and Wallace, C.A., 2020. Determining common contributory factors in food safety incidents–A review of global outbreaks and recalls 2008–2018. Trends in Food Science & Technology, 97, pp.76-87.
• Ajayi, A., Oyedele, L., Owolabi, H., Akinade, O., Bilal, M., Davila Delgado, J.M. and Akanbi, L., 2020. Deep learning models for health and safety risk prediction in power infrastructure projects. Risk Analysis, 40(10), pp.2019-2039