Dubai
Your mother soaks her fruit and vegetables for hours before eating them, but you’re happy with a quick rinse and your husband can’t see the point of either. So, who’s right?
The photograph paints an unsavoury picture of food left on a pavement, soaked with drain water and bird droppings, outside a local grocery along Nakheel Road in the Deira area of Dubai. When storing or disposing food items, many grocers are neglecting basic hygiene and there could be a lot of mould building up in the area.
After you pick up these items, you may bring several different bacteria home with you. In fact, according to the UK-based National Health Service website, one single bacterium can multiply into more than eight million cells in less than 24 hours.
Bacteria are found everywhere and can grow when food handlers are not careful about cleanliness. Though small, it only takes a few of them to spoil food or cause food borne illnesses.
People make sure they wash their hands all the time, sometimes even use a sanitising hand wash. This is why many may think they are protected against germs. Well, think again. Almost every part of our daily life is filled with germs we would rather not know about. Of course, most of us are not dying, or even getting really sick. But some of us face stomach aches, respiratory infections or cases of diarrhoea due to germs we don’t even know exist. About 40 per cent of cases of food poisoning occur in the home, according to a European-wide study by the World Health Organisation in 2003.
We would hate to think that some of the grocers aren’t always practicing due diligence when it comes to food safety. But, an ounce of prevention is definitely better than a cure, when you’re filling up your bags. Food safety practices extend from farm to fork and can help prevent food borne illness.
— The reader is a sales manager based in Dubai.
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