Daily News Editorial

Food Safety

 25 August 2016

The National Food Safety Week, currently underway, is an opportunity to take stock of issues concerning food safety, labelling, security and habits. The Food Safety Week began on August 23 (Tuesday) and will end on August 29.

One of the main aims of the Food Safety Week organised by the Health Ministry is detecting instances of traders selling dry or fresh food items which are either expired or unfit for human consumption. Accordingly, legal action was instituted against 137 shop owners islandwide during the first day of the National Food Safety Week, Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine Ministry sources said.

Under the direct supervision of Health Services Director General Dr. Palitha Mahipala, inspections were carried out targeting around 3,200 restaurants, shops, canteens, eateries and hotels with the participation of more than 1,800 Public Health Inspectors (PHIs) during the first day of the National Food Safety Week. They will especially target all the places which offer food, beverages and sanitary facilities to passengers of long distance buses. It has been found that food handling and storage conditions as well as sanitary facilities at most of these places are not at a satisfactory level.

Action is to be taken against all vendors who have violated safety norms and regulations. Attention should also be paid to general cleanliness of tables, cooking containers and surfaces and plates and cutlery – we often see rats scurrying about in eating places and cats and dogs sleeping on Kottu and roti tables. The quality of water used for washing and cooking food and cleaning plates etc. must also be examined.

During the inspection, the PHIs have also found about 1,722 soft drinks without colour codes. They have directed the shop owners to return them to the relevant manufacturing and marketing companies. The “traffic light” system for identifying the sugar content of soft drinks and similar foods (Red for high sugar content, Amber for moderate/medium and Green for low/zero) is still a relatively new concept and we feel that manufacturers should be given some more time to fall in line.

In the meantime, shop owners cannot be faulted for stocking items without the colour codes, because there is still little awareness about this programme. There should be a bigger campaign on the print and electronic media on this traffic light classification system.

Until this system is perfected and possibly widened to include other foods such as biscuits (which also have high sugar content), all consumers should heed the general advice of nutritionists – if sugar comes first in the ingredients list of any food item, just avoid it at all costs. It is thus vital for all consumers to read the food labels fully, even though most consumers now look for the expiry dates carefully. This information will help avoid the health complications of consuming foods with a high sugar content, such as diabetes and tooth decay.

One of the main subjects taught at hotel school is food science, which includes vital lessons on food storage and handling. This knowledge is not available to the retail trader or to the cook in the run of the mill “hotels” found in every street corner. There are foods that cannot be stored together, some foods require specific storage temperatures and conditions and some others perish rather quickly.

Most retail traders are in the habit of turning off their freezers and refrigerators at night apparently to avoid high electricity bills, without realizing the health implications. Foods such as raw and processed meats are especially vulnerable to temperature fluctuations – there have been many cases of food poisoning and even deaths due to the consumption of such foods which have gone stale. And there is simply no benefit to be gained by turning the freezer off – when it is switched on again in the morning, it will run at a stretch for a few hours to make up for the lost time and temperature, thereby running up an even bigger bill.

Food waste is another grey area that gets little attention. The disposal of food waste and household garbage has become a huge issue in Colombo and the main cities. Households could minimize food waste by cooking to suit the number of people and meal times. Remember that there are millions of hungry people worldwide – food is a precious resource that should not be wasted.

The other type of food waste is even more heart wrenching. In Sri Lanka, Post-Harvest Losses (PHL) of various crops in handling, transport and storage is exceedingly common. We have seen pictures of tonnes of various crops rotting by the wayside mostly due to excess harvests. We have to evolve strategies to avoid PHL and also to make use of excess yields in some way. For example, certain fruits can be canned. The possibility of exports too has to be explored. This also ties in with the important aspect of food security. Faced with these challenges, the authorities must strengthen the laws and regulations on food safety and security to ensure a healthy, disease-free society.