The Starting Point: What Is Food Hygiene?

Abstract The concepts of food safety and hygiene have intuitively been a concern to human kind since the dawn of history. In the last 2–3 decades, the world had seen major improvements in food safety management, although admittedly this progress and the lessons learned have been at the cost of many incidents, where people have been injured or have lost their lives. To highlight the importance of hygiene in food processing and manufacturing establishments and also to measure the progress that has been made so far in ensuring food safety and wholesomeness, this introductory chapter reviews the basic concepts underlying food hygiene, the path that has been taken to reach today’s status, and the challenges that we face in future. It also outlines the role and responsibilities of the various sectors of society, namely governments, food industry, consumers, and academia.