Lesson Notes By Weeks and Term v4 - SHS 3

Lesson Video

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Performance objectives

• Define food safety and quality practices.
• Explain the steps for producing safe and quality crop products.
• Discuss the importance of these practices in processing, storage, and marketing.
• Analyze the impact of poor food safety practices on health and the economy.

Lesson summary

This lesson focuses on the critical practices that ensure the food we grow, process, and sell is both safe to eat and of high quality. In Ghana, we lose a significant amount of our farm produce after harvest due to poor handling. Furthermore, foodborne illnesses like cholera and typhoid are often linked to contaminated food. By understanding and applying proper food safety and quality practices, we can reduce waste, improve public health, increase farmers' incomes, and even create opportunities for exporting our local products like *gari*, dried mangoes, or pepper sauce. This knowledge is not just for farmers; it is for everyone who eats, sells, or prepares food.

Lesson notes

This lesson is built around two central ideas: Food Safety and Food Quality. They are related but distinct. Food Safety: This refers to all practices and conditions necessary to protect food from contamination that can cause foodborne illness or injury. It is about preventing harm to the consumer. If a food is unsafe, it can make you sick. Contaminants can be: Biological: Bacteria (e.g., *Salmonella*, *E. coli*), viruses, fungi (moulds), parasites. Chemical: Pesticide residues, cleaning agents, toxins produced by moulds (e.g., aflatoxins in maize and groundnuts). Physical: Sand, stones, glass fragments, metal pieces, hair. Analogy: Food safety is like the brakes on a car. It's a non-negotiable requirement to prevent a disaster. Food Quality: This refers to the attributes of a food product that are acceptable to consumers. This includes its appearance (colour, shape), texture, flavour, nutritional value, and uniformity. Quality determines the product's value and how much a consumer is willing to pay. Examples: Bright red, firm tomatoes are high quality. Broken, discoloured rice grains are low quality. Sweet, juicy mangoes are high quality. Analogy: Food quality is like the features of a car (air conditioning, sound system, leather seats). It's what makes you choose one car over another and determines its price.

A food can be of high quality but unsafe. For example, a beautiful, large tomato that has been sprayed with a banned pesticide just before harvest is high quality in appearance but dangerously unsafe to eat.

A food can be safe but of low quality. For example, maize grains that are safe from mould but are broken and small will be considered low quality and will fetch a lower price.

Applying Safety and Quality Practices

Evaluation guide

• Apply food safety and quality practices in the processing, storage and
• marketing of selected food crops.
• Building on wh at others say: In pairs, learners brainstorm the meaning of safety
• and qualit y practices in crop production.