Assurances associated with the quality of cooked foods being provided to patrons at public places are an important barometer of a country’s development and lapses in food safety standards can have a negative impact on external perceptions of standards “on the whole” in a country, Director of the Government Analyst Food and Drugs Department (GA-FDD) Marlan Cole has told the Stabroek Business.
He was at the time responding to the reported recent closure by the Mayor and City Council of five food establishments in various parts of the city for offences including the absence of business registration, trading without a Food Handler’s Certificate and Trading under insanitary conditions.
Cole told Stabroek Business that the Food and Drugs Department was pleased at the action which City Hall has taken. “We have to continue to send strong signals that we are serious about enforcement of the laws,” Cole told Stabroek Business. He said that the prevalence of the practice tended to be greater in areas where the presence of municipal monitoring was weaker, particularly rural areas. “What is also important is that the recent action by City Hall sends signals to the other offenders. That cannot be a bad thing,” the GA-FDD Director told Stabroek Business, adding that it was good to see that despite “what is almost certainly a situation of limited resources, City Hall is still seeking to keep the pressure up on delinquent food vendors.”
