It is very well said that if you don’t take your food as a medicine then you may have to take medicine as food.
Bacteria has number of ways to enter your food. The spread of Virus from Wuhan is a perfect example how lethal micro-organism can become.
Food- food for human being is best when the form of food is simple, that is what our ancestors have told us time and again. Scientist have proven that plant based food are simple form of food which are easy to digest and safer than non vegetarian food.
It seems nCOV19 is nature’s way of protest that killing of living being ruthlessly is not right.
Vegetarian diets with special properties of anti microbial, should be added to diet intentionally to boost immune system. Food such as turmeric milk, Rassam ( South Indian spicy gravy, rich in black pepper and turmeric etc), ginger tea, green tea, drumstick leaves , radish leaves and local fruits and vegetables should be included.
Micro organism like all other living organism need basic necessities like Food, environment, temperature and host.
First and foremost thing is, there must be a loop hole through which bacteria enters food. Most often it is human error in missing a step of SOP, it is often noticed that skipping an standard SOP becomes a medium of transfer of bacteria from unhygienic place to the food. Thus training of staff plays a crucial role in safeguarding food standards in FBO’s (Food Business Operators).
At home during lock down condition, one should abstain from bringing anything from outside including carry bag. if need be carry your own cloth/ jute carry bag, bring material put all the material in a soap solution and the carry bag too. (As far as possible). If metallic thing then pour hot boiling water on it.
Common error
- Missing Hand wash procedure,
- Not giving proper time to hand wash is as good as not washing the hand. As a small hole in pot drains away the water, similarly few germs in hand can be Dangerous.
- Special care should be taken for hand wash after touching common touching area like cash counter, credit cards, door knob, cash, guest table, mobile phone, door bell etc.
- Missing Sanitizing procedure.
- Sanitizing hands, equipments, vegetables, scoops, even serving dishes plates is very much important.
- Special care must be taken by cleaning staff to sanitize and wash their hands properly. If they miss- they may spread germs !
- Not segregating Non veg food from veg food.
- Not following recommended temperature of cooking, reheating, storage of food.
- Not following protective clothing (Masks, gloves etc) and GHP (Good Hygiene Practice)
- Even it is very important to train staff how to use protective clothing. Mostly it is seen mishandled.
Nothing new, this we know from the beginning of the century.
This is more of the concern that when we know what is the mistake than we don’t know what is the issue.
Everyone knows Hand-washing is vital step in food safety and sadly most violated step. Steps needs to be taken to enforce and monitor compliance of basic steps of hygiene.
Steps to improve compliance at FBOs
- Install alarm, for reminding staff to wash hands every hour.
- Installation of CCTV camera over hand-wash station to ensure every staff washes hands.
- Food safety supervisor/ representative on production floor to guide and correct right usage of hand gloves.
- Maintain checklist for crucial hygiene and Food safety norms like – Cooking Temperature, Personal Hygiene, Thawing and Sanitization of fruits and vegetables. where ISO systems are not implemented.
- Develop food safety training Matrix if not developed and link individual food safety training score with their incentive.
Time to monitor and include micronutrients in our diet consciously.
Folic Acid- vital b vitamin- to prevent changes in DNA.
Zinc – to fight invading bacteria and viruses
Anti viral foods like Neem leaves
pH of Food and water we take
Nutrition claim of packaged food we take.
Type of oil used for frying.- and our own oil we use, is it truely genuine or just admixture of some cheap substitute.
Thank You
Intelligent Insight 