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Chinese restaurants being targeted by M&CC to improve sanitation
As part of its sustained efforts to ensure that restaurant foods are prepared under hygienic conditions, the Food Hygiene Department of the Mayor and City Council of Georgetown will today kick off a sensitisation campaign.
Chief Meat and Food Inspector, Jackdeep Singh
And according to Chief Meat and Food Inspector, Jackdeep Singh, the initial targets will be the operators of Chinese restaurants within the city.
He also anticipates that a few operators from other regions will also be a part of the sensitisation effort which will take on the form of a workshop set for the Chinese Association Building, Brickdam, Georgetown, starting at 10:00 hours.
The campaign, Singh said, was streamlined in recognition of the fact that there are still some restaurants that are still not adhering to continuous calls from the municipality to utilise strict hygienic practices.
The participants will, as a result, be exposed to sessions geared at enhancing their knowledge to ensure that the preparation of foods are done in a manner that promotes proper sanitation and hygiene practices and by extension serve to improve the entire operating procedure of restaurants.
“Our aim is to educate these restaurant operators about the benefits that can be had if they inculcate the necessary practices. Some of them seem to have a difficulty doing that right now.”
And since the participants are expected to be mainly Chinese nationals, Singh said, that the municipality had taken the initiative to prepare a detailed operational manual which was translated to Chinese, compliments of the Chinese Association.
The Association, he disclosed, will also be providing the services of a translator to support facilitators (officials of the Food Hygiene Department) of the sessions planned for today.
Addressing the hygienic condition of Chinese restaurants comes as part of a series of sensitisation workshops scheduled to be undertaken, Singh said. “We have planned 10 sensitisation sessions for this year already and we are not just targeting the Chinese restaurants although we will do follow-up with them to ensure that they are adhering.”
According to the Chief Meat and Food Inspector, as part of the sensitisation campaign fast food outlets, Creole restaurants and even food vendors who operate in school yards and other places will also be targeted.
“We are not going to wait for something to happen to address these problems. We recognise that there is a need to reinforce the importance of good hygiene so we are going ahead and do what it takes to get through to the relevant stakeholders,” Singh said yesterday.
The campaign will also seek to enlighten butchers and meat vendors, he noted.
It was during last year that the Food and Hygiene Department and the Municipal Abattoir intensified its actions to monitor the markets that fall under the municipal jurisdiction in order to ensure that safe and wholesome foods reach citizens.
During that exercise meat products were primary among the items that were being inspected.
About three percent of all animals slaughtered in the city were being done so illegally. Singh had said that this act could have resulted in tainted meat being sold to consumers.
And so in order to safeguard consumers from buying meat infected with diseases the municipality was forced to commence the campaign.
The campaign was geared at not only tracking illegal slaughter operations but also ensuring that such meats are destroyed.
Singh said that based on the municipal bylaws no meat should be sold within the city of Georgetown unless it is inspected and certified by a Meat and Food Inspector.
It also states that no slaughtering should take place in the city outside of the municipal abattoir, which is the sole authorised place for slaughtering in the city.
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