Ensuring food safety at every stage of the production and consumption chain, from field to table, is the main condition for preventing health deterioration through food pollution. Apart from natural food toxins, the composition of foods also contains chemical pollutants and microbial toxins. Natural toxins are poisons resulting from chemical compounds naturally found in foods. When good agricultural practices and good manufacturing practices are not followed during the production and processing stages, various chemical substances such as chemicals used in agriculture, drugs used in veterinary medicine and food additives can pose great health hazards. Each food item may contain more than one of these chemical contaminants. The concentrations of these impurities are very low. However, some of these chemical pollutants are extremely toxic. Adequate and balanced nutrition with safe foods forms the basis of preventive health services. Safe foods are foods that do not carry physical, chemical and biological risks during their shelf life.
Although some toxic elements are consumed in the daily diet, cases of poisoning are very rare in normal healthy people. This situation can be explained in three ways; 1. The density of harmful elements in any daily consumed food is very low and it must be consumed in large amounts for a long time to have an effect. If the daily diet includes a variety of foods and does not consume large amounts of any food containing toxic elements, it does not pose a risk of poisoning or chronic disease. 2. The human organism can tolerate a wide variety of harmful elements in the diet when they are present in very small amounts. If one of the harmful elements is taken in excessive amounts, it has a toxic effect. 3. There is an antagonistic interaction between chemicals. It is possible that the toxic effect of one of these may be neutralized by the presence of the other in the diet. For example, the toxic effect of dietary cadmium is reduced by high levels of zinc. Likewise, there are antagonistic interactions between manganese and iron, copper and molybdenum, selenium and mercury, lead and iron. Likewise, iodine blocks the effects of some goitrogens, antioxidants, nitrous and halogenated compounds. Thus, the nutrients are in very low concentration and very variable in composition. Many types of toxic elements do not pose a danger to normally healthy people in a balanced diet. In addition, preparation, washing and cooking processes reduce the effects of some toxic elements.
It is stated that some of the cancers in humans are caused by carcinogens naturally found in foods. For this reason, it is important for public health that the diet consists of different foods, that any food containing harmful chemicals does not form the basis of the diet, and that foods such as potatoes, oilseeds, legumes, dried fruits and grains are stored in appropriate conditions and cleaned and used well. It is especially important to store products such as bulgur, rice, flour, pasta and bread made from wheat, which is the basic food of our people, in environments where ochratoxins and aflatoxins will not form, and to sunbathe the products stored annually from time to time. In addition, unbrined cheeses ( tulum, kashar, cottage cheese, etc.), roasted and other meat products, and fatty, protein foods such as hazelnuts, peanuts, walnuts and corn must be stored and consumed in a way that they do not mold. Considering that the effects of harmful chemicals can be prevented with useful chemicals, fruits, vegetables and others rich in these should be included in the daily diet.
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