FRUITS AND VEGETABLES ARE KEY ANGLES TO FOOD SAFETY

Food safety is one of the most important angle of human survival, Scientific research over the last decades has shown that a diet rich in fruits and vegetables is protective against many cancers and lowers the occurrence of coronary heart disease. This has contributed to substantial increase in consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables.

The importance of fresh fruits and vegetables for human health, together with their marked increase in the year-round availability from a global market, has contributed to the substantial increase of their consumption.

However, the recent increase in reports of food borne illness and outbreaks linked to fresh fruits and vegetables as a result of microbial infection has raised concerns from public health agencies and consumers about the safety of these products, more the less due to a higher rate of fruits and vegetables consumption a threat towards the consumers raised eyebrows of COLEACP and SOLIDARIDAD to gather key number of stakeholders to mention few among them being Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS), Tropical Pesticides Research Institute (TPRI) and farmers discuss about fruits and vegetables threats and safety as whole in Dar es salaam and together agreed on the following points as a measure

a) importance of good health and hygiene for personal health and food safety;

b) importance of hand washing for food safety and the importance of proper hand washing techniques;

c) importance of using sanitary facilities to reduce the potential for contaminating fields, produce, other workers, and water supplies; and

d) techniques for hygienic handling and storage of fresh fruits and vegetables by transporters, distributers, storage handlers and consumer

e) importance of tidy and developed environment

But also vowed each stakeholder at a respected area of technicality to make sure they be ambassadors and key participants to make sure the goal having safe food including fruits and vegetables is achieved.