Food safety is serious business
CJIA Port Health Officer Bonita Mc Donald
CJIA Port Health Officer Bonita Mc Donald

– and must be given maximum attention, says senior health officer

SUPERIOR culinary hygiene demands food safety throughout the supply chain from production, distribution, storage and preparation to consumption. Seven years ago, the Port Health Unit of the Ministry of Public Health adopted a robust campaign to ensure all meals offered at the main port of entry, the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), meet high global standards.

Globally, 80 per cent of deaths are blamed on unsafe food and food-borne diseases. While these remain significant public health problems, they also impede socio-economic growth and development by putting a severe straining on health-care systems harming national economies, tourism and trade along the way.

According to PAHO/WHO statistics, diarrhoea remains the most common disease linked to food in the Region of the Americas, but Noro-virus, Campylobacter, E. coli and non-typhoid salmonella are the most important food-safety concerns in the area.

Guyana has so far avoided the curse through the Ministry of Public Health’s free, annual, compulsory training and certification of food handlers vending at the popular CJIA.
Health officers stationed at Ports of Entry (PoEs) act as the country’s strongest line of defence against food-borne diseases, said Bonita Mc Donald, Port Health Officer (PHO) at the CJIA.

“We perform a vitally important service to the consuming public, but the results of safety lie with the food handlers and suppliers,” Mc Donald explained, during a recent interview at the Food Handlers Workshop at the CJIA.

According to Mc Donald, food safety consciousness is linked to personal hygiene. She said the human body and clothing can be major carriers of micro-organisms, thus food handlers must at all-time maintain good hygiene and wear freshly-laundered outfit.
“If we don’t do basic things like brushing our teeth, showering and be tidy we will contaminate the food, then the customer will have a contaminated product. We want you to be selling a safe product for the customers, in this case to our departing and arriving travellers,” she said.

She reminded participants that food handlers must be free from all contagious disease.
“You should be free from any rash, boils or infected cuts and free from any unusual discharge from the ear, eye or nose,” the PHO said.

While the wearing of hair restrain, hats or aprons are vital when preparing and serving food, Mc Donald also cautioned against the age-old practice of leaving the food-preparation site while still wearing the apron.

“Sometimes food handlers leave the preparation area to go empty the bin with their apron still tied to their waist. This practice can result in contamination of food at its preparation stage,” she cautioned.

She said, too, the wearing jewellery while handling food “is strictly prohibited” under the United States, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations and that of the International Health Regulations (IHR).

REMOVE UNSECURED OBJECTS
According to the FDA, food handlers must remove all unsecured jewellery and other objects that might fall into foods. They must also remove hand jewellery that cannot be adequately sanitised during periods in which food is being manipulated by hand.

“Jewellery is a carrier of germs. That is why the law forbids food handlers from wearing any form, especially, wedding bands,” Mc Donald explained.

Under international rules too, food safety guidelines also require handlers to avoid handling money while handling food. Chewing gum; smoking in the food-preparation area; eating and spitting in restricted areas; coughing or sneezing over food is also forbidden while operating in a food establishment.

Appropriate hand hygiene is also important for food preparers. Regular cleaning and trimming of their fingernails, because these can hide dirt and germs and contribute to the spread of some infections, such as pinworms.

“Our finger nails are major carrier for germs (and) we ought to keep these short and clean at all times,” Mc Donald counselled.

Keeping hands clean through improved hand hygiene is one of the most important steps food handlers can take to avoid contamination of food.

“Wet your hands with clean, running water (warm or cold), turn off the tap, and apply soap. Lather your hands by rubbing them together with the soap. Be sure to lather the backs of your hands, between your fingers, and under your nails. Scrub your hands for at least 20 seconds then you rinse and you pat dry then turn off the tap with paper towel,” Mc Donald said, while outlining the washing technique.

Food handlers are reminded to wash their hands after using the washroom, touching parts of their bodies, sneezing, coughing or using a tissue, smoking, chewing tobacco or gum. They are also required to wash their hands thoroughly after taking out the garbage, handling dirty dishes and after handling raw foods.
Food safety guidelines also require that food handlers wash their hands before handling ‘ready-to-eat foods’, before and after caring for someone who is sick and similarly for treating a cut or wound.

Gloves can be worn for a maximum of two hours while completing a specific task uninterrupted.

According to the WHO, foods are safe when they do not contain dangerous microbes (bacteria, viruses, parasites, or fungi), chemicals (allergens, waste from veterinary drugs, agrochemicals, or toxins), or foreign bodies (soil, hair, insects, etc.) that are a danger to our human health. Processed foods can also be contaminated if handlers do not follow correct procedures.

“Chemical contamination in food can result in death. Chemical must be stored away from food, both raw and cooked,” Mc Donald noted.
Job satisfaction at the CJIA is immense for Mc Donald who enjoys great support from food providers.

“I have never had to initiate enforcement actions because the food handlers have been compliant on the first or second warning,” she said. (Ministry of Public Health)

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