His Excellency Brig. General Eng. Khalid Mohammad Bakulka, Executive Director of Operations, MNGHA, Western Region confirmed that the theme of World Health Day 2015 this year is "Food Safety", a vital topic that is highly important to all segments of society, which supports the application of the Five Keys to safer food: (keep clean, separate raw and cooked, cook thoroughly, keep food at safe temperatures and use safe water and raw materials). He added that expanding people’s knowledge is an objective, and from this point of view, the goal of Ministry of National Guard - Health Affairs is to adopt this approach in the form of conducting multiple scientific and educational meetings for the community.
Eng. Bakulka also pointed out the importance role of health awareness in our society to correct habits and misconceptions, so it was the goal of Health Education Department in King Abdulaziz Medical City - Jeddah to educate everyone on the importance of public health, thus maintaining a healthy society begins by educating all segments on the importance of this world day.
Moreover, this event is organized by KAMC- J and represented by the Health Education Department under the slogan "How Safe is Your Food?" lasted for 4 days and was commenced by a scientific symposium, which discussed many topics that are important to nutrition, including; food and sports, - the basic principles of food safety, foodborne illnesses, food safety or quality, food coloring and food storage.
After that, Ms. Aziza Hashmi, a UK Registered Dietitian presented a lecture in which she discussed Food Safety Defrosting, Cooking and Chilling. She pointed out that he safety, quality and nutritional value of the food we eat is highly important for our health and wellbeing and proper food safety and storage helps to preserve food quality and Nutritional Value and can help prevent foodborne illnesses. She also illustrated that bacteria grow quickly at temperatures of dangerous zone (from 5°C to 60°C), therefore, it’s advised to store food in the cold food zone (from 5°C and less) to prevent the growth of bacteria. It’s also advised to cook within the hot food zone (60°C or higher) and that where the bacteria are destroyed.
Moreover, Ms. Ayat Samman, a Health Educator discussed the basics for handling food safely and mentioned 4 important steps to keeping the food safe: clean, separate, cook and chill. She added that keeping the food safe begins with shopping. It’s advised to purchase refrigerated or frozen items after selecting your non-perishables foods and ever choose meat or poultry in packaging that is torn or leaking. When cooking, don’t cross-contaminate, keep raw meat, poultry, fish, and their juices away from other food. When storing your cooked food, always refrigerate perishable food within 2 hours or 1 hour when the temperature is above (32.2 ºC). As for leftovers, it’s preferably to be kept in the refrigerator for no more than 3 days.
One of the main topics discussed at the symposium is Food Coloring through a lecture presented by Dr. Lamya Auwad, a Family Medicine Consultant, in which she explained that Organic food means the foods produced by organic farming that foster cycling of resources, promote ecological balance, and conserve biodiversity where artificial chemical fertilizers, drugs, pesticides antibiotics, and wormers are prohibited. She also stated that the Organic food market is estimated to be about 104 billion$ with 12.8% global annual growth. She also added that Food Processing means adding substances to food during processing to make it looks better, tastes better, smells better and lasts longer such as: (Anti-caking agents, Antioxidants, Artificial sweeteners, Emulsifiers, Food acids and Colors) and many more.
It is worth mentioning that an events educational forum was hosted in the main entrance of the outpatient center for two days, with the participation of many relevant KAMC-J departments such as the Department of Clinical Nutrition, Safety Management, Infection Control, Ancillary Services and Primary Health Care.