University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore

Food is fundamental importance of life. It is necessary for development and functioning including maintenance and reproduction. Usually, food components are distinguished in four categories: Nutrients, Toxins of Natural origin, contaminants and additives. The book entitled "Handbook of food safety" provides concise overviews which form in total a comprehensive coverage of a broad range of food safety topics which may be divided under the following chapters: food safety: an overview, the basic principles of food safety, fundamentals of microbial growth, microbial detection techniques, rapid detection of food pathogens, microbial inactivation techniques, food safety management systems, issues in food safety, food safety regulations, food safety, biosensor of nanotechnology innovative food packaging, impact of food safety on world trade and hazard analysis critical control points (HACCP).

The history of food safety is probably nearly as old as human history itself and may have started with the recognition and subsequent avoidance of foods that were naturally toxic. Early humans, probably by trial and error, also stared to develop basic forms of food preservation, which possibly also made food safer, eg. drying salting, fermentation. The Chinese preserved vegetables by fermentation, in prehistoric times and pillions preserved white cabbage in earthenware pots in Italy in the first century AD. As human eating patterns, habits and food changed, food safety become more finalised. In changed, food safety become more finalised. In 200 BC the book of levitivus tells us that moses introduced laws to protect his people from food related disease, such as the washing of clothes and bathing after the sacrificial slaughter of animals.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 244-247).