At present, adding appropriate food additives, such as preservatives, antioxidants, color fixatives, etc., is still an important means to improve the storage resistance and prolong the shelf life of food. Or treat food with suitable chemicals (such as sulfur dioxide). However, in reality, the phenomenon of over-range and over-dose use of food additives occurs from time to time. What's more, in order to prolong the shelf life of food, many lawless elements use non-food additives to treat food, such as adding formalin (formaldehyde) to hairy belly and excessive use of nitrate or nitrite in fish, which poses a serious threat to people's health and even life.
In addition, pests, rodents and mildew are important factors that endanger the safe storage of grain and oil. At present, the effective prevention methods are fumigation (such as sulfur) and chemical poisoning (such as pesticides and rodenticides), which may make grain and oil absorb or mix with toxic and harmful substances.
2. The safety of food irradiation storage.
Radiation treatment can inhibit or eliminate pathogenic bacteria and spoilage microorganisms in food and ensure food safety. The biological safety of irradiated food mainly considers whether irradiation will mutate microorganisms and produce more toxic pathogens, which will make pathogenic microorganisms grow faster and cause greater harm to human beings. After irradiation, microorganisms show radiation resistance, and after repeated irradiation, their tolerance is doubled. Whether the emergence of this radiation-resistant strain will cause new harm needs further study and confirmation.
3. Cross-contamination
Food is a special commodity, so it should be stored in a special warehouse, and measures such as temperature control, humidity control, insect prevention and rat prevention should be taken. However, in reality, especially in small-scale enterprises, storage capacity is often insufficient, storage facilities are simple, and even there is no own warehouse, resulting in the phenomenon of food and non-food (even toxic and harmful chemical products, such as pesticides, fertilizers, gasoline, etc.). ) mixing or alternating storage inevitably makes food, especially bulk food.
4. Safety problems caused by improper food storage conditions
Storage temperature and humidity are important factors affecting food quality. Excessive temperature and humidity often make some fresh foods have vigorous physiological activities, accompanied by toxic and harmful substances. For example, potatoes will germinate under suitable humidity and light, the cortex will turn green, and the toxin solanine will be produced at the same time. If you eat too much of this kind of potato, you will have symptoms of gastrointestinal discomfort such as nausea, diarrhea, abdominal pain, dizziness, chest tightness, etc., ranging from neurological symptoms to life-threatening ones.
Nuts such as corn, rice, peanuts, cottonseed, coconut, walnuts and their processed products will be mildewed and contaminated by mycotoxins if the storage environment temperature and humidity are too high. Botulinum toxin is very pathogenic, such as aflatoxin mentioned above. In recent years, aflatoxin has been found in some condiments such as wine, soy sauce, bean paste and enzyme preparations used in food industry, which should also be paid attention to.