The Government Analyst-Food & Drugs Department (GAFDD) stands ready to “take the appropriate action” to roll back the recent revelations of serious food safety discrepancies in eating houses across the country even though the Department’s Director Marlan Cole conceded in a telephone interview with the Stabroek Business on Wednesday, that monitoring exercises to ensure compliance with food safety standards will require a multi-agency effort.
Cole’s comment came shortly after his department had issued a damning report following inspections of operating standards in eating houses in Regions Four and Six.
According to the findings of the probe, more than 80% of the food establishments in Regions Four and Six do not have measures in place to keep food in conditions that assure protection from contamination, outcomes which Cole described as “worrying.”
On Wednesday the Stabroek Business spoke with a food safety functionary attached to a local agency who said that the findings of the probe should come as no great surprise to persons who are familiar with the food industry. “Unfortunate and disturbing but really not surprising,” is how the source who is familiar with safety and health protocols associated with operating eating houses described the outcome of the GAFDD probe news.
The source told this newspaper that the reason why the GAFDD’s comments come across as news “is because food safety is not really an issue to which we pay any serious attention as a whole. Once the food we eat from public places doesn’t make us feel ill we assume that it’s OK,” the source said.
Cole, meanwhile, says that the information yielded in the GAFDD report provides the various public health agencies with a template with which to begin to respond to the problems in the sector. He said that having provided the data which serves as “a basis for a response,” the Department will also be providing laboratory support in pursuit of appropriate responses to the problems.
However, the source told Stabroek Business that the undertakings being given by the GAFDD can only be taken seriously “if they are supported by evidence that they have the qualified staff to accomplish what they say they want to do.” The source added that in the absence of routine monitoring by the authorities, food establishments are taking advantage of the absence of a routine.
In its release providing information on the outcomes of the “survey,” which it said had been “conducted from September 2018 to March 2019 among 55 randomly selected food service establishments in Region Four (Georgetown and Timehri-CJIA), and in Region Six (New Amsterdam and Corentyne) Berbice” for the purpose of determining “compliance of the food service industry with existing sanitary regulatory requirements,” the GAFDD said that its inspection checklist undertook assessments of six areas, namely, food storage, cold storage, food preparation, sanitation, garbage disposal and employee hygiene. The assessment, the release said, found that only 25% of the facilities practised adequate food storage, while cold storage standards were found to be satisfactory in only 34% of the facilities. With regard to food preparation, the GAFDD said, “Only 18% effectively protected the food from contamination, whilst a mere 11% practised meat thawing safely. Food handlers in only 13% of establishments used gloves,” the release added.
Areas such as sanitation, internal and external garbage disposal, employee hygiene including hand-washing and the use of hair nets, all scored poorly.
“Obviously, the findings tell a disturbing story but let’s be real, they are not really surprising. The issue here is not just the findings but how we are going to respond to them. Why have we chosen to make these disclosures at this particular time?”
Among the other areas of concern alluded to in the GAFDD’s media release are unsatisfactory results yielded from probes relating to hand-washing, air quality, cutting boards and utensils used in food establishments and containers including food boxes used in the serving of food.
Cole told Stabroek Business that the study undertaken by the GAFDD is aimed at alerting consumers to some of the risks associated with the food service industry as well as to trigger the appropriate responses from the City Public Health Department in an effort to have them provide more support to the food industry in the various communities. Cole said that his department was also hoping the customers themselves would help put pressure on the proprietors of eating houses to help them raise standards.
Meanwhile, Cole disclosed to Stabroek Business that the GAFDD will shortly be undertaking similar probes of eating houses in other parts of the country.
