What Does Food Safety Mean?

Nutrition and healthy living are the basic needs of people. This is achieved through food safety. The emergence of many new diseases today is the result of neglect in this regard. Diseases caused by bad and unhealthy food threaten human health in developing countries as well as in developed countries. These diseases pose a great risk for children, pregnant women and the elderly, especially those with poor defense systems.

The goal of the food safety studies is to ensure that the food produced does not harm the consumers and the natural environment physically, chemically and biologically. In addition to quality production in restaurants, hotels, patisseries, cafes and similar establishments that produce food, the necessity of implementing a number of food safety management systems that guarantee the food produced now increases the importance of food safety. Food safety studies aim to minimize possible food risks, where the problems arise and how to solve these problems are being investigated. In this context, hygiene practices in foodstuffs and training of personnel working in the business also contribute to the development of food enterprises and the improvement of the quality of life of the society.

The issue of food safety is related to the emergence of food-borne hazards when food is consumed. Because these hazards can occur at any stage of the food chain, effective control across the food chain is necessary. Therefore, food safety can be ensured by the contribution of all elements in the food chain.

Food safety refers to all of the measures provided to eliminate all physical, chemical and biological risks that may arise in foodstuffs. Therefore, safe food, when prepared as intended, is suitable for human consumption with physical, chemical and microbiological properties and has not lost its nutritional value. In other words, in the sense of safe food, non-harmful situation is important for human health. Otherwise, when unsafe foods are consumed, undesirable conditions such as the appearance of disease symptoms or increased health problems will occur. Food safety is to determine that food is suitable for consumption and to protect consumers against food-borne risks. For this reason, everyone in the food chain should do their part. Food safety and quality can only be regulated by applying food safety and quality systems in the food sector.

Important aspects of crop production in terms of food safety are:

• The licensed medication recommended during production should be used in appropriate time, with appropriate methods and in sufficient quantities.
• The time between spraying and harvesting is very important for food safety and must be followed.
• In order to ensure traceability, drugs used in production, harvest intervals and similar points should be recorded throughout the production processes.
• When applying methods such as irrigation, fertilization and maintenance, care should be taken not to affect the product negatively.

Important points in animal production in terms of food safety are:

• Only medicines approved by the Ministry for animal health should be used at the recommended time and amount.
• Veterinary medicines should not be used without a veterinary prescription in any way.
• Vaccines of animals should be given at regular intervals and on time.
• Animal diseases and animal deaths of unknown cause must be reported immediately to the relevant government agencies.
• A health report issued by the veterinarian should be sought during the transport of animals.
• Animals' accommodation and means of transport should be suitable for animal welfare.
• Records of feeds, medicines and vaccines used should be maintained for traceability.

Failure to comply with the necessary cleaning and hygiene conditions in all processes from production, processing, storage, transportation, cooking and consumption of foodstuffs and contamination in various ways leads to loss of nutritional values, deterioration of food quality, food poisoning in humans or other health problems and causes economic losses.

What are the health risks from food?

The basic condition of food safety is the provision of safe raw materials. In order to produce safe foodstuffs, raw materials must be produced in healthy and hygienic conditions.

Food risks are addressed in three groups: physical, biological and chemical. Physical risks are various foreign substances such as stone, soil, glass, metal, wood and bone, which are not expected to be present in foodstuffs. However, microbial risks take the first place among the risks in foodstuffs. Risks in foods are important at various stages of production activities. If not sterilized by the right methods, there are naturally many microorganisms in foodstuffs. The real risk arises when this number exceeds the limits and poses a danger to human health.

Bacterial, fungal, viral and parasites are among the major biological hazards that put food safety at risk. Certain diseases have been completely eliminated or minimized by the measures taken. However, in our country unfortunately it still poses a danger. In order to protect humans from these diseases, especially animals should be kept under control.

Chemical hazards that put food safety at risk include veterinary medicines and some pesticide residues that are used unintentionally or accidentally in order to provide high yields in plant and animal production. Some of the chemical hazards come from environmental sources. Toxic components and allergens that somehow enter the structure of foods threaten the safety of foodstuffs.

In addition, the fact that the food additives used are not used in the correct methods and in the prescribed amounts poses an important chemical hazard.

In foodstuffs, there may be risks arising from the raw materials used, production techniques and non-compliance with the hygiene rules of workers, as well as from the contamination of other foreign substances such as paints, machine oils and so on. All of these risks can be reduced by measures to be taken during production, purchasing, processing, storage, distribution and sales and food safety can be ensured. Otherwise, a favorable environment is created in the foodstuffs that will cause microbiological, physical and chemical deterioration.

What is Hygiene and Sanitation?

Hygiene and sanitation are complementary concepts. Hygiene is generally related to the causes of diseases and their elimination. In a sense, it falls within the field of preventive medicine. When food hygiene is mentioned, it is understood that all the studies carried out in order to provide suitable conditions in various production stages from the field to the consumer's table in order to produce healthy foodstuffs are understood.

The term sanitation broadly covers the principles to be applied for the protection and improvement of human health. The expression sanitation in the food sector means creating and maintaining hygienic and healthy situations in food production. The problem encountered in providing sanitation is that they are carriers. Carriers carry disease-causing microorganisms in their bodies, unaffected by themselves, and spread them to the people and the environment they come into contact with. This is dangerous because it is not known to the carrier. In the food sector, all measures taken to create and maintain healthy and hygienic conditions are defined as sanitation. Therefore, sanitation is considered as a whole in the food sector and includes the production, storage and transportation stages. At this stage, both employees and equipment should not be neglected. Business sanitation is extremely important for food safety and consumer health.

In case of insufficient attention to hygiene and sanitation practices, microorganisms become active and change the structure, taste and aroma of foodstuffs, decrease the quality, but more importantly, they create risks for human health.

What Does Legal Regulations Bring?

In the Law on Veterinary Services, Phytosanitary, Food and Feed issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs in 2010, food is described in great detail. According to the law, foodstuffs are live animals, feeds, uncollected plants, medicinal products used for therapeutic purposes, cosmetics, tobacco and tobacco products that are not offered for direct human consumption, and processed, semi-processed or unprocessed substances or products that are eaten, smoked or expected to be used by humans. This goes through long processes from obtaining food to consuming.

Foods offered for human consumption should not pose a health hazard. In order to achieve this, countries adopt legal regulations and impose sanctions to protect human health and prevent food fraud.

The Food Hygiene Regulation was issued by the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock in 2011 based on the above mentioned law. This regulation has been prepared in accordance with the Directive on the Hygiene of Foods 852 / 2004 / EC published in European Union countries. This directive sets out the principles of food hygiene that food production enterprises must comply with from the production to the final consumer to ensure consumer protection and food safety.

The general hygiene requirements for food establishments are described in the Regulation as follows:

• Food establishments should be clean, in good condition and well maintained and the necessary repairs made regularly.
• Facilities of food enterprises,
  • It must provide a working area suitable for adequate maintenance, cleaning and disinfection, preventing or reducing air contamination and ensuring that all activities are hygienic.
  • It should prevent the accumulation of dirt, contact with toxic substances, particulate mixing into the food and the formation of unwanted molds on the surface.
  • It should prevent contamination and allow good food hygiene practices.
  • Where necessary, it shall provide storage of sufficient capacity to maintain foodstuffs at appropriate temperatures and ensure proper temperature control and temperature monitoring.
• There should be an adequate number of toilets connected to an effective drainage system. These toilets should not be opened directly to food processing areas.
• There should be a sufficient number of properly designed and placed sinks. Washbasins must have hot and cold water, hand cleaning and hygienic drying agents.
• The facility must have adequate natural or mechanical ventilation systems.
• Personnel toilets, shower and changing rooms should have adequate natural or mechanical ventilation systems.
• Adequate level of natural or artificial lighting should be provided.
• The drainage system must be designed and constructed to prevent the risk of contamination.
• There should be sufficient capacity for dressing and dressing areas and sufficient number of showers for employees.
• Cleaning and disinfecting agents should not be stored in areas where food is processed.

Good Manufacturing Practices in Food Industry (GMP)

GMP Good Manufacturing Practices is a system standard designed for the production of products that affect human health such as food, medicine, cosmetics and medical devices under appropriate methods and reliable conditions. The objective of this standard is to prevent contamination and increase the reliability of the products during the processing, preparation, storage and transportation of the products. To this end, a standard set of protective measures is required.

The basic principles of GMP Good Manufacturing Practices which are applied in food sector are as follows:

• Implementation of Quality Management System in Business
• Organizational structure and qualifications of employees are clear
• Facility, machinery, equipment and materials comply with the required standards
• Workflows, work processes and application instructions have been written
• Entry of raw materials into the enterprise, processing, storage and distribution of foods
• Quality control and testing at various stages of processes
• Approval of activities in all processes and identification of employees authorized to approve
• Determining the process of receiving, evaluating and responding to consumer complaints
• In case of unexpected situations, if foodstuffs have to be recalled from the market, establishment of an order that allows this in the enterprise
• Investigation of the causes and solutions of these faults in case of faulty production
• Storing food samples, destroying problematic or returned products
• Ensuring regular internal and external audits of the enterprise

In terms of activities in the food sector, the requirements of GMP Good Manufacturing Practices are as follows:

• Before starting production, it is necessary to make sure that it is worked according to written, correct and current application instructions and workflows.
• During the activities, it is absolutely necessary to comply with the business processes and not to go beyond the written instructions.
• It is absolutely necessary to use the right materials in the production stages.
• During the activities it is necessary to use the right tools and equipment suitable for the job and to ensure that they are clean.
• All necessary precautions should be taken to prevent contamination and contamination.
• It is always necessary to be careful against labeling errors of foodstuffs.
• Employees must always work meticulously and correctly.
• The work environment in the establishment, including the employees, must always be clean and tidy.
• The business should always be prepared for possible errors, mistakes and bad situations and should always report these situations.
• It is always necessary to ensure that the records kept, reports prepared and checks carried out are correct.

Why Good Manufacturing Practices in Food Industry?

Foods directly affect human health. Therefore, hygienic conditions must be ensured during production. Ensuring hygienic conditions and production under these conditions are realized with GMH Good Manufacturing Practices.

GMH Good Manufacturing Practices cover all production processes from the entry of foodstuffs into raw materials to packaging materials and even to consumers. GMH Good Manufacturing Practices are trying to provide zero error and continuous quality.

The production conditions of foodstuffs such as medicines, cosmetics and medical devices that affect human health must also meet the GMH Good Manufacturing Practices criteria.

Food producing companies provide significant benefits if they establish and manage the GMP Good Manufacturing Practices System in their businesses. These benefits are briefly described below:

• GMP Good Manufacturing Practices also has Quality Management System standards. As such, all production processes are followed and foodstuffs are delivered to consumers in the most healthy way.
• All processes and employees are kept under control in order to avoid any confusion and errors during production activities.
• Employees at all levels are aware of food safety and production safety.
• Foodstuffs are produced by the most accurate methods and under the right conditions.
• For these reasons, the reliability of the enterprise increases in the public opinion.
• The company obtains a great competitive advantage in domestic and foreign markets.
• The entity also produces in accordance with legal regulations and does not face any penal situation.
• The demands of the customers today and in the future are met quickly and with high quality.

What is ISO 22000 Food Safety Management System?

The reason why food safety is so important is that the correct result cannot be achieved by analyzing some of the foodstuffs produced. Therefore, there is a need for a very systematic method that includes all processes in production activities. In this context, HACCP Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points System was first developed. Although this system was adequate for the first time, when the issue of food safety gained a wider dimension with globalization, this time the International Standards Organization (ISO) prepared the ISO 2005 Food Safety Management System standard in 22000. This standard is an international standard and aims to establish a safe food production chain all over the world. ISO 22000 Food Safety Management System establishes a link between food producing companies and suppliers, legal authorities, related organizations and consumers and tries to ensure that foodstuffs can be monitored at every step.

While the HACCP principles are based solely on the production stage of food production activities, the ISO 22000 standard covers a much wider range of the entire production chain. For this reason, the HACCP standard has been abolished since 2006.

The ISO 22000 standard is a set of standards established to conduct hazard analyzes in food production, identify critical control points, manage related processes and establish a Quality Management System. The standards that make up the system are:

• ISO 22000 Food Safety Management Systems, Requirements for All Organizations in the Food Chain
• ISO 22001 Food Safety Management Systems, ISO 9001's Guide to Implementation in Food and Beverage Enterprises
• ISO 22002 Food Safety Management Systems, Guidelines for Implementation of the ISO 9001 Standard in Grain Production
• ISO 22003 Food Safety Management Systems, Requirements for Organizations Providing Audit and Certification of Food Safety Management Systems
• ISO 22004 Food Safety Management Systems, ISO 22000 Application Manual
• ISO 22005 Food Safety Management Systems, Traceability in Feed and Food Chain, Basic Principles and General Characteristics of System Design and Implementation

The HACCP standard, which forms the basis of the ISO 22000 standard, was originally designed to be used in the space studies of America in the 1960 years, in the production of food given to astronauts. In a sense, the HACCP standard is a risk management system. However, HACCP criteria have been taken as basis in many international agreements that have expanded the use of these standards in a short time. The HACCP standard fully targets food safety in food producing companies and focuses only on food-specific risks. In other words, as mentioned above, the HACCP standard is based only on food producing companies.

The ISO 22000 Food Safety Management System is therefore based on the production and sale of safe food all over the world. The important thing is not only the production of food, but also all the processes from packaging, storing, transporting, marketing, selling and reaching to consumers. Thanks to the water standard, safe foodstuffs can be monitored at any stage.

ISO 22000 certification shows how much they adhere to the principles of food safety against their consumers. The ISO 22000 standard combines control processes and regulatory activities under a management system to ensure food safety for this purpose.

Food companies wishing to obtain the ISO 22000 certification must establish a HACCP system defined by the Food Codex (Codex Alimentarius), identify risks for all processes, as well as document workflows and work processes that include good production practices and relevant regulatory requirements.

The Food Codex is the international nutritional standards developed by a commission established by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

The ISO 22000 standard, which is an international standard, is a standard that encompasses all companies in the food chain, including catering and packaging companies.

ISO 22000 Food Safety Management System has a wide coverage. It includes food producing companies, feed producing companies, packaging material producing companies, raw material or additives producing companies, cleaning and sanitizing agents manufacturing, warehouses, transporters, wholesalers, retailers and all those who provide food services.

Today, one of the obstacles to our country in the process of European Union harmonization is food. European Union countries are very sensitive about food. The legal arrangements made by the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock are mainly for the regulation of the infrastructure of food producing companies and forcing them to comply with hygiene conditions. They are also encouraged to obtain ISO 22000 Food Safety Management System certification. In this way, the oversight and supervision burden of the official institutions will be reduced.

The basic structure of TS EN ISO 22000 Food Safety Management System standard is as follows:

• Food safety management system
  • General conditions
  • Documentation requirements
• Management responsibility
  • Management commitment
  • Food safety policy
  • Planning of food safety management system
  • Responsibility and authority
  • Food safety team leader
  • Contact
  • Emergency preparedness and response
  • Management review
• Resource management
  • Providing resources
  • Human resources
  • Infrastructure
  • Working environment
• Secure product planning and implementation
  • General
  • Pre-requisite programs
  • Primary stages of hazard analysis
  • Hazard analysis
  • Establishing operational prerequisite programs
  • Preparation of HACCP plan
  • Updating the initial information and documents specified in the OGP (Operational Prerequisite Program) and HACCP plans
  • Verification planning
  • Traceability system
  • Nonconformity check
• Validation, verification and improvement of the Food Safety Management System
  • General
  • Validation of control measure combinations
  • Control of monitoring and measurement
  • Verification of food safety management system
  • rehabilitation

These standard annexes include the following for information purposes:

• Appendix A: Match between ISO 22000 and ISO 9001 standards
• Annex B: Match between HACCP and ISO 22000 standards
• Appendix C: Food Codex resources providing examples of control measures, including prerequisite programs, and guiding the selection and use of them

An effective Food Safety Management System requires regular co-operation between all management activities in the enterprise, implementation and updating as needed. ISO 22000 standard has been established under the same roof with ISO 9001 Quality Management System standard in order to increase the harmony between them. In this way, the ISO 22000 standard can be installed separately and independently from other management system standards in the enterprise. It can also be easily integrated with other standards applied in the enterprise.

The ISO 22000 standard complements the principles and implementation steps of the HACCP standard designed by the Codex Alimentarius Commission. It combines HACCP plan and prerequisite programs. Food hazard analysis is key to an effective Food Safety Management System. By making hazard analyzes, it is easier to identify and implement the measures to be taken. This standard requires the identification and assessment of risks associated with the facilities and processes of the entity and possible hazards in the food chain.

The ISO 22000 standard is designed as an audit standard to facilitate its implementation. However, enterprises are free to choose the necessary methods to meet the requirements of this standard.

In short, this standard aims to ensure food safety in the global food chain operations. It is a highly consistent and integrated system for businesses that want to focus more on security than required by regulatory requirements. In this way, it complies fully with the requirements of legal regulations and the company can easily pass the necessary official and private audits.