Food Testing and its importance amidst Covid-19 on World Food Day
Emphasizing the importance of testing what we eat on this World Food Day.
We are surviving this age with a deadly pandemic amidst us. There is no one whom Covid-19 pandemic hasn’t impacted.
Covid-19 has not only
locked us but also has forced us to plan our groceries.
When the lockdown was announced,
the primary concern was how will we get our food.
This has changed the way consumer now shop for groceries.
In this pandemic, it was also found in a survey that every consumer’s groceries shopping habits have changed. This has therefore forced every food
business to re-evaluate their business depending on the what to sell and how to do it. One can clearly see that amidst pandemic,
consumers are focusing more on packaged and frozen foods.
During this period, sales has skyrocketed for many nonperishable staples, which includes canned goods, dried beans, and powdered milk.
The likely reason
behind the increase is that people are stockpiling their personal
food supplies as they are worried about food availability,
food safety, and a desire to minimize trips to the market.
Seeing this growing concern for safety, food businesses must be very diligent to prevent food safety issues so that they can gain and maintain consumer’s
trust in food products.
Food testing and analysis is an essential so as to ensure
that the food is safe for consumer. If proper food testing isn’t
done by a manufacturer, the company is at risk of litigation in case a problem does occurs.
Food business can achieve this objective in presence of a strong network of food testing laboratories
which assures the quality of food testing, investing in human resources who care about the safe manufacture of
edible products and carrying out regular surveillance of their manufacturing process.
Food is tested for different reasons. These may be to confirm that the food is free of contaminants or to evaluate the nutritional content
of the product.
Even the sustainability of the product is also tested.
For safety purposes, it’s critical that food is tested to determine if there’s any of the following contaminants:
i)Chemicals like pesticides and antibiotics, that the food could’ve been exposed prior to testing.
ii)Biological agents: For this test, the company searches for microbiological bodies such as bacteria or virus that could produce illness if the food item is ingested.
iii) Physical objects: Food testing confirms no foreign objects have been found within the food items.
The culture of testing is prevalent in most of the developed countries. It is not that they can afford it but it has become their culture. One may surprise to know that NABL, the food testing organization of India,
is one of the leading members of
ISO which decides the standards which should be set all around the world.
So why aren’t we adopting it in our society. In order to develop our country, shouldn’t we focus on providing nourished and healthy food to every kids?
Now the question arises do we really need to test our food? The answer depends on how much you value life.