Living on the Edge: Food v/s Quality Food Dr.

Imran Khan

Living on the Edge: Food v/s Quality Food

Dr. Imran Khan

Technical Manager – Food Lab
Interek India Pvt. Ltd, Gurgaon, INDIA
“We are what we eat” is an old proverb. Our nutritional status, health, physical and
mental faculties depend on the food we eat and how we eat it. Access to good quality
food has been man’s main endeavor from the earliest days of human existence.
Safety of food is a basic requirement of food quality. “Food safety” implies absence or
acceptable and safe levels of contaminations adulterants, naturally occurring toxins
or any other substance that may make food quality can be considered as a complex
characteristics of food that determines its value of acceptability to consumers. Beside
safety, quality attributes include: nutritional value; organoleptic properties such as
appearance, color texture, taste; and functional properties. Many people do not think
about food safety until a food-related illness affects their own family members. The
food supply in the country is not very safe, causing millions of people to be
hospitalized and many deaths occur due to food born illness. Preventing food born
illness and death remains a major challenge.

What is Food Quality?

Food quality is the quality characteristic of food that is acceptable to consumers. This
includes external factor as appearance (size, shape, color, consistency) texture, and
flavor; factors such as grade standard (eggs) and internal (chemical, physical,
microbial). Food Quality is an important manufacturing requirement, because food
consumers are susceptible to any form of contamination that may occur during the
Manufacturing process. Many customers also rely on Manufacturing and processing
standards, particularly to know what ingredients are present, due to dietary,
nutritional requirements (Halal, Vegetation), of medical condition (diabetes or
allergies). Besides ingredients quality, there are also sanitation requirements. This is
important to ensure the food processing environment is as clean as possible in order
to produce the select possible food for the consumers. A recent example of poor
sanitation has been the 2006 North American E. Coli outbreak involving spinach, an
outbreak that is still under investigation. Food quality also deals with product
traceability, in terms of ingredient and packaging suppliers in the need for a recall of
the product. It also deals with labeling issues to ensure there are correct ingredient
and nutritional information as well.

Potentially Hazardous Source (PHS)

This is a term used by food safety organizations to classify food that require time-
temperature and other control to keep them safe for human consumption.

A PHS is a food item that:

• Contains moisture- usually regarded as a water activity graters than 0.85

• Contains Proteins.
• Is neutral to slightly acidic – typically having pH between 4.6 and 7.5.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) food code identifies the following
example of PHS:

• Meat (Beef, Lamb)

Phone: +91-9650601103 E-mail: Imran.khan@intertek.com

Living on the Edge: Food v/s Quality Food Dr.
Imran Khan

• Poultry (Chicken, Turkey, Duck)

• Fish
• Eggs (except those treated for salmonella)
• Milk and dairy Products
• Heat Treated plant food (Cooked rice, beans, other vegetables)
• Baked Potato
• Sliced fruits and vegetables
• Raw sprouts
• Soya – proteins Foods.
• Foods that contain these foods, such as sandwiches / rolls.

In addition to above all any kind of food are potential to physical, chemical or
microbiological source of contamination. The drinking water is of great concern as it
is found contaminated with residual pesticides, mercury, etc. The residual pesticides
contamination also reported in most of the packaged drinking water, cereals, sugars,
milk etc. Similarly, honey and milk available in most of the world market are reported
to be contaminated, with residual antibiotics and heavy metals. The mycotoxins are
other side of quality concern, especially for the largest vegetarian population of our
country. Most of the mycotoxins occurs in cereals and pulses and are known
carcinogen.

Food as an Organization

Food systems in India are not always as well organized and developed as in the
industrialized world., moreover, problems of growing population, urbanization, lack of
resources to deal with pre and post- harvest losses in food, and problems of
environmental and food hygiene mean that food systems in developing countries
continue to be stressed, adversely affecting quality and safety of food supplies.
People in developing countries are therefore exposed to a wide range of potential
food quality and safety risks.

In 2020, the world population will most likely reach 7.6 billion, an increase of 31%
over the mid 1996 population of 5.8 billion. Approximately 98% of the projected
population growth over this period will take place in developing countries. It has also
been estimated that between the years 1995 and 2020 the developing world’s urban
population will double, reaching 3.4 billion. This overall increase in population and in
the urban population in particular, poses great challenges to food systems.
Intensification of agriculture and animal husbandry, more efficient food handling,
processing and distribution systems, introduction of newer technologies including
appropriate application of biotechnology will all have to be exploited to increase food
availability to meet the needs of growing populations. Some of these practices and
technologies may also pose potential problems of food safety and nutritional quality
and call for special attention in order to ensure consumer protection.

Scientific developments have also allowed a better understanding of the nutritional

qualities of foods and their health implications. This has had consumers to become
more discriminating in food matters and to demand protection from inferior quality
and unsafe foods. Consumers expect that domestic and imported foods will meet
basic quality and safety standards and requirements related to food hygiene, labeling
and certification, use of food additives, microbiological contaminations, limits of
residual pesticides & antibiotics, aflatoxins and heavy metals contaminations.

Various market forces shape consumer demand for certain foods that have the
potential to be contaminated. The need to continually provide a safe product to

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Living on the Edge: Food v/s Quality Food Dr.
Imran Khan

consumers creates a need for more advanced testing procedures. Testing ensures
safety & quality and expands market opportunities. Government agencies need to
act as facilitators in terms of dispersing knowledge and creation of advance facilities.
They should come together and encourage laboratories to adapt a wider scope of
activities with trained qualified manpower, validated methods of analysis and to have
advance analytical facilities. At the same time the producer and consumer should be
aware of competitive laboratories their facilities and their recognition & accreditation
status with nodal authority.

To date, “No evidence of harm” if not exposed above the prescribed level of
contamination to human being is comforting. But “No evidence of harm” is not
the same as “Evidence of No Harm”. Some people change their ways when they
see the light, others when they feel the heat.

India is self sufficient so far as agricultural production is concerned and food is

available for all at different cost and proportions, this is thanks to green revolution
during 60’s. But quality food is still remains a concept at large. Very few people, that
too mostly in metro cities, get access to quality food because of lack of awareness
and affordability., The country needs second revolution for quality food production.
Food Services Laboratory of Intertek India Pvt. Ltd., at Gurgaon, INDIA with modern-
state-of-the-art facilities equipped with latest sophisticated instruments such as LC-
MS-MS, ICP-MS, GC-Headspace, GC-ECD/FID/FPD, GC-MS-MS, HPLC-
UV/Fluorescence/RI, FTIR, PCR, ELISA and AAS, offers its services to the country and
strives hard to be the part of the second era revolution. Intertek is a world class
contract research and analytical services organization offering its expertise in
technical problem solving and contract analytical services to industries, government
organizations and academic circles. The laboratory is accredited by NABL (ISO/IEC
17025 2005) and recognized by BIS, APEDA, EIC, Spices Board, AGMARK & MOFPI.
The organization’s comprehensive management and quality systems enable it to
complete the most complex projects accurately, responsively, and in rigorous
compliance with applicable regulations. We at Intertek apply our technical acumen
for commercial problem solving by developing innovative methods. Our integrated
and thoroughly scientific approach ensures cost effective solutions with lower turn-
around time. Be it quality control testing, non-routine analysis or environmental and
analytical consultancy, Intertek is the turnkey contract analysis outsourcing solution.
Intertek offers its reputed and reliable services towards analysis of Food Products,
Beverages, Water & Waste Water. We also compliment the QC testing, non-routine
analysis, R&D projects and consultancy for various food & beverages industries.

Phone: +91-9650601103 E-mail: Imran.khan@intertek.com