Safe and Healthy Food Not Expensive

Health Minister Nila Moeloek say, safe and healthy food does not need to be expensive. Because, that determine the safety and hygiene and health food is hygienic behavior, including in cooking and food choices.

It was announced by the Minister of Health at the height of World Health Day, in North Jakarta City Hall, Tuesday (7/4). at the global level, the theme chosen in this year's World Health Day is "Food Safety", while the national theme is "Select and Food Consumption Safe and Healthy".

She added, safe and healthy food starts at home, including preparing ingredients and cooking and serving properly. Everything that does not require costly. "The key word is noticed aspect of cleanliness and hygiene," said Minister of Health.

According to Minister of Health, World Health Day theme of food security is closely related to efforts to control food-borne disease risk factors to prevent the extraordinary events of food poisoning.

Director General of Disease Control and Environmental Health (P2PL) Ministry of Health M Dawn added, food monitoring to ensure food safety carried out by various government agencies long ago. Ministry of Agriculture plays a role in the supervision of the crop. The supervisory duties of processed food and beverage products made by the National Agency of Drug and Food.

Ministry of Health, said Dawn, a role in the promotion and education related to food safety and health.

Secretary General of the Association of Gastroenterology Indonesia Ari Fahrial expressed, public education about safe and healthy food is important because public awareness in a safe and healthy food choices are limited. Moreover, decisive action needs to be done to those who produce food unsafe and unhealthy.

Threats to health

As reported, the food insecure are harmful to health an issue in Indonesia, mainly due to microbial contamination. One reason is the lack of integration across government agencies handling, especially with local governments, and food safety responsibilities scattered in a number of agencies.

"We already have the complete regulations related to food safety. However, the capacity of the region, mainly related to budgeting, became one of the challenges," said Head of National Agency of Drug and Food Roy Sparringa Monday in Jakarta (Kompas, 7/4).

Roy pointed out, in one of the districts in Java, the local government has only allocated a budget of Rp 30 million for food safety. In fact, last year, BPOM implement a food safety program villages in three districts in Yogyakarta with a budget of about USD 50 million to the village.

On the other hand, the prosecution of the industry, including the domestic industry, which proved to produce food insecurity is still minimal. BPOM could only seize the product. As for the withdrawal of the marketing authorization is the authority of local governments.

World Health Day is celebrated every 7 April and has the theme "Food Safety" is expected to be a momentum to strengthen cooperation and commitment of all central and local government agencies.

The World Health Organization (WHO) believes food security as a global problem should get priority attention. Foodborne Disease Burden global data Epidemiology Reference Group of WHO 2010 states, there are an estimated 582 million cases of illness, consisting of 22 kinds of digestive diseases derived from food and 351,000 deaths related to the disease. Salmonella typhi causes digestive disorders that cause the most deaths (52,000 deaths), followed by Escherichia coli (37,000 deaths) and norovirus (35,000 deaths).

In Indonesia, the disease comes from the dominant food in between diarrhea and dysentery. According to the Health Research, the incidence of diarrhea in Indonesia 3.5 percent. Five provinces with the highest incidence and prevalence period is Papua, South Sulawesi, Aceh, West Sulawesi and Central Sulawesi. The incidence of diarrhea in children under five age group reached 10.2 percent.

Data BPOM show, microbial contamination is a major threat to food snacks schoolchildren. Hawker food monitoring data by BPOM 2009-2014 school children, figures contamination by microbes on all food that does not qualify in the top 50 percent.

In 2014, there were 23.82 percent of the food does not meet the requirements of all food samples snacks school children suspected unsafe. Of food that is not eligible, 74.89 percent of contaminated microbes. The rest do not qualify for use of hazardous materials or food additives in excess. (COMPASS / Adhitya Ramadan)