Introduction: Ensuring Pathogen Free Food

Food for human consumption, unprocessed, partially processed, or processed food, must be subjected to the necessary hygiene rules during production, processing, storage, distribution, and preparation.

Food safety is a scientific discipline describing handling, preparation, and storage of food in order to prevent food-induced illnesses, which may cause from mild gastrointestinal symptoms to life-threatening human health conditions. The contamination of foods represents a major concern for food safety because of the emergence of new pathogens based on the ability of microorganisms to adapt and change, and also because of changing modes of food production, preservation, and packaging that can result in altered food safety hazards.

Nowadays, it is essential to have in-depth knowledge about potential hazards and biosecurity aspects associated with food safety. Therefore, a major policy priority worldwide is the promotion of a high level of food safety, in order to reduce the incidence of foodborne diseases.

In order to reduce the activity of microorganisms (bacteria, mould, yeast, etc.), weather pathogenic or spoiling, preservation is necessary. Food preservation prolongs the life of food by avoiding food waste and maintaining nutritional value. Preservation makes food available in off seasons, saving time in procurement. The main principle of preservation maintenance of asepsis (the absence of bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms) is using methods that have bacteriostatic or bactericide effects on contaminant bacteria.

Moreover, it is important to implement effective biosecurity strategies to safeguard food value chains on a global level. A global perspective into biosecurity policies and approaches to reduce the risks and increase the benefits of international trade and globalizations is required.