THE Food and Drug Department of the Ministry of Health Monday and yesterday hosted a two-day workshop on the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) food safety management system, aimed at equipping small and medium scale food producers with the know-how to put into practice HACCP in their food manufacturing process.
HACCP is a system designed by the Pillsbury Company of the United States which, at one point in time, prepared meals for astronauts. The company designed the HACCP system to assure the production of safe products.
HACCP is a seven-principle system that allows for the implementation of control measures during the manufacturing of food products so as to guarantee a safe end product and eliminates the need for testing after the product is manufactured.
“This is one of the most imely workshops on food safety,” Chief Medical Officer, Ministry of Health, Dr. Shamdeo Persaud said.
The growing economy and the country’s movement into the regional and international market necessitate this workshop.
“Training is really the key to where we go next,” he said, “to establishing Guyana’s products as a brand of quality in those markets,” Persaud said.
“As manufacturers, you have a legal and social responsibility to ensure that foods that you produce in no way cause untoward effects to consumers,” Director, Food and Drug Department, Marilyn Collins, told participants.
“If products that you produce are safe and of the right quality, consumers develop a loyalty to that product,” she advised.
Food and Drug Inspector Marlon Cole said that in the near future, the World Trade Organisation will require every food entity to have ISSO 2200, a required food safety management system for all types of organisations within the food chain.
Within the ISSO 2200 is the requirement for the implementation of the HACCP system to ensure food hygiene.
Cole said that this will result in the Food and Drug Department being unable to issue licences to food manufacturing entities that do not have in place the HACCP system in their business. (GINA)