What is the ideal safe food?

In view of the current food safety situation, the concept of safe food came into being. At present, some scholars in China define this concept as: the production, processing, transportation and other processes of food meet the technical requirements of safe food, and the safety indicators in food (mainly referring to the residues of heavy metal pollutants, non-heavy metals, inorganic pollutants and organic pollutants in food) meet the requirements of safe food standards. Specifically, as an ideal safe food, it should include the following meanings.

1. Health and safety

That is, after safe food is eaten by people, it should not pose threats or risks to consumers and their descendants because of some toxic and harmful factors in food. A food is not safe as long as it contains ingredients harmful to human health, no matter how rich its nutrition and good sensory characteristics are. For example, the "Sanlu poisoned milk powder" incident is because milk powder contains melamine which is harmful to human body, causing many babies to get sick or even die.

2. Nutritional safety

Safe food should meet the human body's needs for nutrients, that is, the nutrients contained in food should meet the human body's needs in terms of types and contents. For example, Fuyang milk powder case does not contain toxic and harmful substances. The key point is that the content of nutrients such as protein is too low, which is inconsistent with its packaging label, misleading consumers and causing serious food safety accidents.

3. Environmental safety

As a safe food, it should also conform to the principle of "sustainable development", and its resource development and utilization should not have a negative impact on the ecological balance; Its production and processing processes and wastes (such as packaging) shall not cause pollution to the environment or damage to the ecosystem.

4. Economic security

At present, the production cost and price of safe food are higher than ordinary food, which undoubtedly brings adverse effects on the production and consumption of safe food. This requires people to take effective measures to solve this problem, reduce the production cost and sales price, and avoid making some consumers unable to afford safe food for economic reasons. Otherwise, safe food will be meaningless.

In addition, whether a food is safe or not must be approved by a qualified authority. Without approval, it is difficult to confirm its safety.

To sum up, safe food should refer to the food whose production technology and product quality meet the requirements of consumers and society, and are recognized by authoritative departments, and will not pose a threat to consumers' health under the conditions of reasonable consumption mode and normal consumption.