Latest update February 10th, 2025 2:25 PM
Legislation under review as Health Ministry looks to improve food safety
With calls by the Pan American Health Organisation/ World Health Organisation (PAHO/WHO) for
Minister of Health,
Dr Bheri Ramsaran
countries to give close attention to food safety, Guyana, through the Ministry of Health has announced its willingness to put boosted measures in place. At least this is based on disclosures made by Minister of Health, Dr Bheri Ramsaran, in a message to observe World Health Day on Tuesday.
World Health Day is observed annually on April 7, and this year the focus was on ‘Food Safety’, a topic that embraced the slogan “”From farm to plate, keep it safe.”
And in order to realise this goal, Minister Ramsaran has announced that the Ministry of Health will strengthen its capacity to execute its mandate of inspection and enforcement through expansion of an already robust training programme in this regard.
He asserted too that Government will continue to work with its ‘Strategic Partners’ such as PAHO, the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation (IICA), Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS), the Chambers of Commerce, the Municipalities and other stakeholders to further strengthen food inspection regimes.
Added to this, the Minister disclosed that deliberate moves will be made to continue to actively review the relevant legislation protecting the quality of the nation’s food stocks with the aim of strengthening these. It is expected that this move will serve to make penalties realistic, and put in place effective deterrents to sub-standard practices. “We will maintain vigilance over the quality and safety of the food our citizens consume,” assured the Health Minister who went on to point out that “the Government of Guyana, through the Ministry of Health, has placed Food Safety on the front burner.”
In fact he outlined that interventions in this regard is aimed at protecting consumers from the risk of food poisoning and food borne diseases, acute or chronic and shoddy food products.
It was for this very reason, the Minister related that the Food and Drug Department of the Health Ministry, which was recently strengthened, is committed to ensuring that “the Guyanese people have confidence in the food they buy and eat.
The Minister pointed out that, according to WHO, unsafe food is linked to the deaths of an estimated two million people annually, including children. This is due to the fact that food containing harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites, or chemical substances is responsible for more than 200 diseases, ranging from diarrhoea to cancers. And according to the Minister, it is important to recognise that most food borne diseases occur at home because of poor food handling in the domestic kitchen.
As such, he noted that parents as well as food handlers need to be very cognizant of the importance of proper food handling and preparation in the home.
Moreover, Minister Ramsaran has noted that “restaurants attract special attention from the Regulatory Body of the Ministry of Health.”
As such, he added that the Ministry urges citizens to observe WHO’s five keys to safer food which offer practical guidance to vendors and consumers for handling and preparing foods. These are: keep clean, separate raw and cooked, cook thoroughly, keep food at safe temperatures and use safe water and raw materials.
Minister Ramsaran has asserted too that “new threats to food safety are constantly emerging. Changes in food production, transportation, distribution consumption, that is, intensive agriculture, globalization of food trade, mass catering and street food; changes to the environment; new and emerging bacteria and toxins; antimicrobial resistance – all increase the risk of food becoming contaminated.” Also the Minister has underscored that increases in travel and trade enhance the likelihood of contamination.
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