Funda Pınar Çakıroğlu

By Aslı Uçar, Mustafa Volkan Yilmaz and Funda Pınar Çakıroğlu

When certain disease-causing bacteria, viruses or parasite contaminate food, they can cause food-related diseases. Another word for such a bacterium, virus, or parasite is “pathogen”. Since food-related diseases can be serious, or even fatal, it is important to know and practice safe food-handling behaviors to help reduce the risk of getting sick from contaminated food. According to the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC), “food safety is the assurance that food will not cause harm to the consumer when it is prepared and/or eaten according to its intended use”. Foodborne diseases are widespread throughout the world. The process by which a foodborne disease spreads begins with the features of the disease, contaminating the food, which in turn threatens both individual and public health by means of the foods. Healthy, or what can be termed as safe food, is food that has not lost its nutritional value, that is clean, in physical, chemical and microbiological terms and that is not stale. The factors causing the contamination of the food may threaten the safe consumption of it and thereby make the foods harmful to human health. For this reason, it is necessary to utilize various resources to prevent the food from being contaminated in all stages of the food chain, from harvest to consumption. The aim of this chapter is to determine the factors affecting food safety and proffer effective intervention strategies against food-related diseases.

Part of the book: Significance, Prevention and Control of Food Related Diseases

By Taha Gökmen Ülger, Ayşe Nur Songur, Onur Çırak and Funda Pınar Çakıroğlu

Vegetables are important for human health because of their vitamins, minerals, phytochemical compounds, and dietary fiber content. Especially antioxidant vitamins (vitamin A, vitamin C, and vitamin E) and dietary fiber content have important roles in human health. Adequate vegetable consumption can be protective some chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer, obesity, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular diseases, as well as improve risk factors related with these diseases. In this chapter, basic information will be given about the classification of vegetables, preparation and cooking, and their effects on food content of vegetables and effects on health and diseases (diabetes, obesity, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer).

Part of the book: Vegetables