THE Regional Environmental Health Department of Region Five
(Mahaica/Berbice) has been maintaining initiatives with respect to
food safety with the successful training of several manufacturers and
handlers in good practices.
An official disclosed that the department recently held a programme for
38 such persons in the region.
Those trained included food processors and manufacturers,
restaurant and snackette owners, school food vendors and itinerant
vendors operating between Ithaca, West  Bank Berbice, and Bush
Lot on the West Coast of Berbice.
The aim is to ensure that food producers are aware of the
requirements of the Food and Drugs Act and the requirements for
improving the safety of food from production to public consumption.
The course covered all aspects of the basic principles for safe
food handling, with special emphasis on issues relating to  personal
hygiene, cleaning effectively, use of caps and aprons, hand-washing and
other measures to  prevent food poisoning.
Those who attended will receive the required Food Handlers
Certificates, a requirement for their operations.
Officials urged the participants to not only ensure that customers
are safe from food poisoning, but to use their knowledge to demonstrate
standards approaching excellence in their day to day activities, even
on busy days.
Another such training programme for food handlers between Bush Lot
and Mahaicony, East Coast Demerara, is scheduled for the
second half of next year.
The programmes are being facilitated by the Environment Health Department, in collaboration with the Government Food and Drugs Analyst Department and the Regional Health Officer of the Region.
Training activities apart, the department’s programme also includes sporadic food hygiene inspections of the premises of food producers.
In many cases those found guilty of offences against the Food and
Drugs Acts are closed down and their equipment seized; they are allowed to resume operations only after they have remedied the defects in their
operations.