Food Health Safety Program New York Health, Medicine, Nursing Essay

Food Health Safety Program New York
Author’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Food Health Safety Program New York
Introduction
Food safety is the field of public health policy aimed at protecting consumers against the dangers of acute or chronic food poisoning and foodborne illness. Unsafe products can contribute to a variety of health problems: diarrhea, viral illness, hormonal & developmental issues and cancer. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that approximately 1 in every 6 Americans (or 48 million people) fall ill, 128,000 are admitted, and 3,000 die each year in the United States of America from foodborne illness (CDC, 2018). Therefore, food safety is a requirement for food handlers. The aim of this paper is to understand the current food safety programs in New York and make a critical analysis of its implementation in the system.
Discussion
 Food Safety and Health Outreach Program in New York
No state agency has any authority over the whole food inspection process in New York State. However, HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) is the world-renowned risk-based food security management system that is used as a program to be followed. A HACCP framework sets out seven general food security and hygiene standards that can be implemented at all stages of the food chain, from food production and preparation through to packaging and distribution (Pierson & Corlett, 1992). In comparison to most traditional food inspection practices, the HACCP approach focuses on an understanding of the factors contributing to foodborne disease outbreaks and on the application of studies on the evolution, replication and inactivation of foodborne pathogens (Wallace, Holyoak, Powell & Dykes, 2014). Thus, food safety agencies in New York can target their resources on the greatest public health risks in an establishment, rather than on general sanitation and superficial improvements ("Food Protection Training Manual", 1992). The HACCP system ensures better food safety relative to other methods, such as conventional quality control through the monitoring of the end product. As a result, food safety agencies can focus their resources on the bigger risk to public health in New York facilities and not on general hygiene and simplistic improvements.
Implementation. HACCP stands for Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point, its implementation has 7 distinct steps and its aims are to;
1 Identify the hazard of any food-contaminating condition,
2 Conduct a process analysis to determine which problems may occur and how they can be prevented,
3 Implementation of the plan of action to prevent, reduce or eliminate a hazard.
The Academy for Health is a department of the Environmental Health Section. One of its obligations is that people from the community are given training and certification programs as necessary by the Health Code. One of the courses taught is food health safety. For the inspectors of food service and retail food processing facilities, the Food Safety Course is mandated by the Health Code of New York. A person holding a credential as such must be in the premises and is responsible for tracking all preparat...