Environmental health officials are hoping that the presentation of awards to individuals and establishments will encourage greater efforts with respect to food safety in Dominica.
Health officials have said few establishments in Dominica meet required food safety standards; but those who have achieved excellence in food safety will be recognized later today at Fort Young Hotel.
Hotels, restaurants and other food related establishments will be awarded.
Today’s awards ceremony forms part of activities for food safety awareness month under the theme: “Your food, your health, your life, your responsibility”.
– DNO Correspondent
I think that all food establishments in Dominica SHOULD meet the required food safety standards. We are dealing with the public and some should not meet and the others don’t and nothing is being done about it. What if some illness starts to spread because of an establisment that does not meet the requirements ?? Then what. How are the health officials going to know where it came from. There should be mandatory requirements in place, some kind of public awareness to let the public know which establishment has passed the safety standard and which have not. I know that everyone is tryin to make a living in DA selling food and stuff , but also we have to be aware of how the food that we are eating off these vendors or establisment is being prepared and held and then served. Just a thought, when they are handing out awards .
Concerned,
I support your point. I made those very comments in a previous post. The Department must come up with a public information system where the inspection reports of food establishments can be publicised so that consumers will know the sanitary status of those places so that they can protect themselves from food borneillness that can potentiall occur from those establishments.
In addition, all food places must have a minimum standard to meet and the Departmment should either fine or shut down those places. Many times those below requirement food places interfere with the bottom line of those who make tremendous sacrifice and effort to come up to par with the requirements for food service establishments and this is unfair to them.
If we the Department is giving wards for those meeting food safety requirements they should have demerits for those not meeting the requirements. Unless this happens those less than satisfactory food establishments will make no effort to improve. They must be forced to make those changes. The food safety laws must be made to bear upon them.
I totally agree!!!