Nowadays, fast foods have become more popular in busy lives.
Do you know what fast food is?
Why is it called fast food, and why is it so popular?
Why do health experts say that it’s unhealthy?
If you can’t answer these questions, don’t worry; after reading this blog, you will get a clear idea.
Fast foods are those that can be prepared and served easily in the shortest time. In the present era, our lives have become very busy and hectic. So, most working people don’t have much time to cook food, instead, they prefer grabbing fast food from nearby restaurants or ordering food for lunch or dinner at home. They also give children and elderly people this food to avoid time waste and work hustle. And people of all ages, genders are really fond of these types of foods because of their deliciousness. Urban people and city people are very fond of ready-to-eat foods. Because of their rising demand, street food, and fast food businesses are growing day by day.
Spoilage foods are harmful to the body and can be very dangerous as well as poisonous for the human body. Spoilage foods can cause food poisoning, vomiting, and so many other health issues that can affect the health and economy of a country.
In summer, street beverages such as fruit juices, lemon juices, saline water, cold drinks (Lassi, Borhani), and ice cream are vastly popular and widely consumed by people, which is really harmful. These street beverages are made in an unhygienic environment, and the water, ice, and colors that are used in these drinks are impure and highly microbially contaminated. People suffer from water-borne diseases such as diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid, etc. by consuming these unsanitary beverages.
For this reason, in the summer season, our country’s hospitals become full of patients with water-transmitted diseases and cannot give places for other diseases. These water-transmitted diseases, such as diarrhea, are really harmful and can be life-threatening for children and older people. Kids and the younger generation are more fond of these types of foods than healthy homemade foods/cooked foods.
So many chemical ingredients and preservatives that are harmful to humans are used in fast food every day. Such chemical ingredients can also spoil foods. Many types of viruses, bacteria, yeast, and mold can spoil foods, cooking foods, and food ingredients.
The crucial reasons for Fast-food contamination and spoilage are:
- Food handlers who prepare fast foods do not care about food safety, hygiene knowledge, practice, or attitude. They have little or no knowledge about food safety or sanitation. Most of them also don’t have any food safety related training or a food business/health license.
- Throughout the world, the spoilage of food by mycotoxigenic fungi creates a vital risk to food security.
- Most of the time, food contamination occurs during the time of preparation and serving because of the food handlers’ ignorance of hand washing after excretion.
- In developing countries, food contamination, which can occur biologically and pathologically, is the most important cause of disease and death.
- Foodborne illnesses and several other dreadful health effects in humans are caused by the consumption of contaminated RTEs, which depend on the quantity and type of food contamination.
- Food can be contaminated at any stage in the food cycle, such as the various stages from the production of food to when it is ready to eat.
How to ensure food safety
- To prevent outbreaks of food-borne illnesses, the authorities need to monitor that the food sold to people in restaurants is safe, wholesome, and fit for human consumption.
- For human health and safety, a quick and accurate analysis and survey of food safety and quality are necessary.
- The personal hygiene of staff during the transportation of raw materials (such as milk containers), the way food is treated or processed (such as using clean machines to cut bread), and packaging storage in clean and dark facilities are also required for fast food safety.
Besides ensuring safe fast foods, we should practice cooking as well as eating healthy homemade foods, which are much more safe and nutritious.
What do you think about it? Would you prefer popular fast-foods or nutritious homemade foods in your daily life? Let us know.
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Writer:–
Kulsuma Bahar Bethi
Content Writing Intern
YSSE