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Some of the city’s more popular eating houses are guilty of food safety and other health-related violations and the limited capacity of the Georgetown City Council’s Food Hygiene Department to effectively enforce the standards set under the law may mean that consuming food prepared by some of those facilities may pose health risks for patrons.
Earlier this week, in the wake of an investigation launched by the municipality’s Food Hygiene Department into several food safety violations at a snackette run by one of Georgetown’s prominent department stores, this newspaper was informed that the sheer magnitude of the task faced by the Food Hygiene Department meant that a number of infractions may be going undetected and unremedied for long periods.
Acting Chief Meat and Food Inspector and Head of the municipality’s Food Hygiene Department Jagdeep Singh told Stabroek Business that he and a team of officers had visited the snackette following a report of cockroach infestation in an area behind the snackette counter from which food is served. He said that while the team found no evidence of that particular violation, they found other violations including dirty and defective wooden floors, the absence of a refuse bin in the kitchen area, cracked paint on walls and storage cupboards without doors. The report made to City Hall also included a claim that the snackette had served a customer food on a plate that had not been properly washed.
Singh told Stabroek Business that his department had cited the establishment for the
violations and had given them three days, in the first instance, to remedy the minor ones. Singh said that while under the law the delinquent establishment was allowed fourteen days within which to remedy the problems the Food Hygiene Department could require then to take remedial action in a shorter time.
The Georgetown City Council is empowered to take action against food safety violators under Section 34 (03) of the Food and Drugs Act or through a recommendation of Council. Alternatively, City Hall can move to the courts against the offenders. In extreme cases the Food Hygiene Department can seize utensils and equipment used in the preparation of food, effectively causing the delinquent eating house to have to halt operations.
Stabroek Business understands that the management of the snackette cited for violations last week is cooperating with the Food Hygiene Department and that action to close the facility is not being contemplated at this time. Singh said that a recent visit to the facility had revealed that some effort was already being made to correct some of the violations. Singh said that failure to completely address all of the violations cited by the Food Safety Department within the stipulated time frame could lead to moves to close the facility.
Meanwhile, Acting Assistant Chief Meat and Food Inspector Deonarine Arjune told Stabroek Business that one of the real concerns associated with the monitoring of food safety standards in the city was the limited staff in the department. Arjune said that while the Food Safety Department continued to issue violations against eating houses ‘every week’ the sheer scale of its responsibilities meant that it could not perform its functions as efficiently as it wished to. Arjune further hinted that the Department had had its own battles with some major establishments over long-standing violations. He referred to a recent case in which he said that the Food Hygiene Department had had to persistently press a popular city restaurant to protect its toilets from abuse by vagrants.
This newspaper understands that the Food Hygiene Department is responsible for enforcing food safety standards in approximately 236 eating housing houses in the city. The Department, which is also responsible for meat inspection at the City Abattoir, inspection of markets and policing itinerant food vendors comprises five members of staff including Singh and Arjune.
The Food Safety Department has also had to respond to a surfeit of itinerant food vendors who continue to appear on the streets of Georgetown and outside school premises. Singh acknowledged that it is impossible to determine whether all of them are adhering to Council’s regulations or to laws governing the possession of Food Handler’s Certificates and the creation of acceptable environmental standards in areas where food is prepared, served and consumed.
This newspaper is aware of vending services where food is served by persons who fail to display Food Handler’s Certificates. It is also not unusual to see roadside food vending services situated close to garbage-infested drains.
Meanwhile, Singh told Stabroek Business that the Food Hygiene Department was also facing a challenge posed by the proliferation of expired food products in the city. He said that trading in expired confectionery and other items had become commonplace in the city and that just last week the Department had seized a quantity of expired sweets from a seller in the Stabroek Market area. This newspaper has learnt that batches of expired confectionery and ‘snack packs’ may have appeared on the market to coincide with a likely demand linked to the reopening of school for the start of the new academic year.
The limitations of the Food Hygiene Department are among several issues that arose during the recently concluded reform-related probe of the Georgetown City Council. Stabroek Business has learnt that among the recommendations made to the Commission of Enquiry is that the Department be equipped and funded to a level that will allow for both increased monitoring of food safety standards as well as to facilitate training for vendors and restaurant and snackette operators and staff.
