Every human being has the right to safe, nutritious and affordable food. In today’s difficult economic times, the prices of food is a major concern in order to stretch the atrociously low daily wage one receives and do not pay attention to the spotlessness of food and drinks. Before the next Food Borne Disease Outbreak occurs that can exterminate loved ones, Filipinos must be conscious that everyone involved in the food chain from farm to table has a responsibility to keep the food safe from killer pathogens.

Food can become adulterated at any point from production to consumption. Our naked eyes do not see deadly microbes such as e.coli, salmonella, hepa V, Entamoeba histolytica, and vibrio parahaemolyticus that have dirtied food and drink. Even in our own homes, in particular the kitchen and toilet, pathogens abound. Although the primary responsibility for food safety rests with food producers on the farm, poultry, piggery, many foodborne illnesses are caused by improper preparation or mishandling of food at home, in food service establishments, slaughterhouses, markets and supermarkets. Whether you grow, process, sell or prepare food, you have an obligation in keeping safe the food system.

Today, nearly one in 10 people in the world get sick, and 420,000 die after eating contaminated food. Unsafe food containing harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites, or chemical substances causes more than 200 diseases, from diarrhea to cholera and all sorts of cancer. Foodborne illness can lead to long-term disability and death. In the Philippines, more than 17,000 people had acute bloody diarrhea in 2018.

The young and old are not safe from germs that poison the body. Foodborne diseases hinder social and economic development by straining health care systems, damaging productivity and disrupting the national economy, tourism and trade. Recent estimates indicate that the impact of unsafe food costs approximately $95 billion worldwide in lost productivity each year.

It is tragic to see a loved one perish from eating food that you provided because food safety standards were not observed. We have seen in the Netflix documentary film “Poisoned, the dirty truth about your food” tragic incidents of children losing their lives after eating their favorite Jack in the Box hamburgers that were not cooked at the recommended 155 degrees inside temperature. And the romaine salad or spinach which is a staple in a healthy salad ends up killing a grandfather because the vegetable had fecal matter watered into it from a polluted water source. In the said film, Bill Marler, the lawyer who successfully sued erring food companies in behalf of victims, explained that the American government is not doing enough to keep food safe especially at the “farm level”. If this is happening in the USA whose leaders claim that it has the safest food system in the world, then things would be worst in the Philippines.

It is good that the Philippines has a sound policy framework in the Food Safety Act of 2013 and the Code on Sanitation of the Philippines (Chapter 3). We also have a National Codex Technical Committee to develop, adopt or localize food safety standards in the country.

But we also know that the government lacks competent staff with enough skills to detect and prevent germs from entering our food system. This can be inferred from the report of Dr. Wessam Atif who conducted a cross-sectional survey in 2016 to determine the food safety training needed by government sanitation inspectors in the Philippines who play the role of food inspectors as part of their job. From the answers of 235 sanitation inspectors of different cities randomly selected in Metro Manila, it showed that 67.2% did not attend any formal training in inspection procedures for food safety and 78.7% did not attend any formal training in hazard analysis critical control point (HACCP). Additionally, 80.4% did not receive any formal training on the Food Safety Act of 2013.

Instead of satiating public officials with billions of confidential funds, Congress should stop brownnosing and start channeling precious resources to government regulatory agencies under the Agriculture and Health Departments that have the obligation to keep the food system safe which can only be accomplished by recruiting an adequate quantity of competent personnel, enabled with the appropriate training in the apposite implementation of the Food Safety Act of 2013 and code of sanitation.

Human lives depend on a safe food system. So before biting, chewing and swallowing the food into your digestive system, pray hard that the food on your table is safe to eat.