Food Safety and Security: Discussion 16 The Importance of Food Safety and Security

Food security and food safety are both It is important to ensure food is safe to consume and illness is not spread. Each person has the right to a food which they can trust is safe and does not have any contaminants put there on accident or on purpose. The United States works hard to ensure there is enough food for everyone and it is safe. 
Food security is to make sure that the food people needs is available in the necessary quality. Each household as the food it needs. Everyone has the right to the food they need to survive and to be comfortable. They need food that is considered staples. The governments often make sure there are enough of these commodities available to the general population to ensure everyone is happy, healthy and secured of a good diet.
Food safety is to make certain the food is safe and there are no pests, chemicals, pathogens or other contaminants. When it comes to food security, you need to know how to prepare, process, use, secure and store food. This means that raw materials may not be contaminated with pathogens, cross contamination, microbes, allergens, foreign objects and other things that may taint the food and compromise its ability to be consumed. The location the food is made should be taken into consideration. The animals must be fed appropriately and be free of disease, pests and chemicals as well as medications. The proper withdrawal times should be observed for food animals.
Food defense is ensuring that food is not sabotaged or tampered with. This is to avoid malicious or criminal acts. This is to also ensure there are no terrorist acts. The United States Food and Drug Administration helps to monitor the food and cosmetic supply. The United States ensures that the food supply that comes into the country is monitored. There may be inspections, tests and more that go into making sure the food is viable and good for human consumption.
To examine this further, you could take for instance, the example of eggs, a commodity. The food security part of this example would be to ensure there are enough eggs available to a household. Each household needs to have enough eggs to have their needs met. This is important food source provides protein and should be available free of contaminants to the population in the necessary numbers. The food must be consumable. This moves onto the next aspect, of food safety which is to ensure the food has no microbes, pathogens, cross contamination, foreign objects, pathogens, pests, chemicals or other contaminants. There are steps such as employee training, equipment maintenance, food testing, microbe testing, proper storage, proper treatment, heat considerations and more that go into the keeping and processing of food. Food safety is to ensure the food supply is able to be consumed. Food defense is to make sure the eggs have not been tainted with poisons or other malicious or intentional attacks. This may involve careful monitoring of the food’s origin, security during the foods transport or other steps to ensure the food is not affected by those with malicious intent.