By Marilyn Collins
Environmental Health Specialist Report (EHS 2015) detailed a study in which 448 food managers in a focal group admitted that inadequate chicken preparation and improper cooking practices were common occurrences. Forty percent 40% of them stated that they frequently failed to assign dedicated colour- coded cutting boards for raw meat (including chicken); 29% said that they did not wash and rinse surfaces prior to sanitizing them, and over 50% said that thermometers were not used to determine the final cook temperature of chicken. Only 43% of managers knew the recommended temperature (165oF) for the cooking of raw chicken. This is not particularly encouraging news for consumers.
Were a similar survey to be conducted among the food service managers in Guyana—restaurants, fast food and street food vendors etc—the survey results would probably yield an even greater deficiency in terms of knowledge of the basic tenets of food hygiene.
When food hygiene principles are vitiated it could result in food poisoning outbreaks with devastating economic effects to the
