Central Board of Health emphasises food safety

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Officials at the Central Board of Health (CBH) are satisfied that the department is on course in ensuring that commercial food handlers in the country maintain the highest possible level of food safety for their customers.
Sharon Martin, acting chief health inspector, has stated in a recent press release, that the CBH trained 2,814 food handlers in 2017 in the principles and practices of food safety.
Of this figure, 1,710 were new food handlers, while 1,104 were retrained.
According to Martin, the key factors to safer food are keeping the area clean, separating raw and cooked foods, cooking food thoroughly, and keeping food at a safe temperature, and using safe water and raw materials.
The targetted groups were food vendors, hotels, restaurants, cook shops, caterers, school cafeterias, and community groups.
Martin also mentioned the completion of the Draft Food Safety Act as a major feat during the past year.
In seeking to ensure that guidelines and standards are fully maintained, Martin revealed that in 2017, a total of 145 restaurants and 20 supermarkets were visited and inspected.  Food items were examined for signs of damage and spoilage with close attention paid to “best by” and “used by” expiry dates.
Hotels, schools, daycare and pre-schools, bars, police stations, beauty salons, barbershops and health clinics were also inspected in 2017.

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