Spontaneous Food Trading – What Diseases Can Be Contracted from Homemade Food
Homemade and unknown-origin food products purchased at spontaneous trading locations can pose a serious threat to human health. This particularly concerns milk and dairy products, meat and sausage products, fish, canned goods, cream confectionery products, eggs, and mushrooms. This was reported by the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection.
Such products can be a factor in food poisoning, including botulism and toxic infections, acute intestinal infections such as salmonellosis, as well as parasitic and allergic diseases. At the same time, even with intensive reproduction of salmonella or botulism pathogens, the products do not change in taste, smell, or appearance.
Spontaneous trading is the sale of food products in unauthorized places: on streets, near markets, on sidewalks, from vehicles or "by hand," without proper control and permits confirming the quality and safety of the products.
Designated places of sale include stores and markets where state veterinary-sanitary examination laboratories operate. There, mandatory quality control of products is carried out, and an expert opinion on their suitability for consumption is issued.
Experts emphasize that when buying products on the street, the consumer effectively takes responsibility upon themselves and must consider possible risks, including:
- lack of product quality control;
- violation of storage conditions and temperature;
- unsanitary selling conditions;
- unknown product origin;
- risk of contamination with bacteria, parasites, and toxins.
Food safety is defined as the absence of harmful or toxic effects of food on the human body during consumption. The main requirements include proper cultivation, harvesting, processing, labeling, storage, transportation, sale, and preparation of products.
To reduce health risks, experts advise:
- buying products only in authorized trading places;
- checking expiration dates;
- paying attention to storage conditions;
- not buying products "by hand";
- washing vegetables and fruits before consumption;
- following personal hygiene rules.
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