Regular hygiene inspections at establishments resumed

December 18, 2011

WILLEMSTAD — The regular unannounced hygiene inspections at establishments were recently resumed, says Sirving Keli, sector director Public Health. The inspections are conducted under the responsibility of the Inspector of Public Health Protection, Sing-Pong Lee.The regular inspections were started again in the third week of November. The inspections were halted in August as they were supposedly illegal and not conducted on a legal basis. However, that proved to be incorrect. Keli: “People said the inspections were illegal. The department Legislation and Judicial Affairs (WJZ) investigated the matter from a judicial point of view. It wasn’t actually necessary to halt the inspections.” The supervision on observance of the legal regulations in the field of goods, including food and beverages, drinking water, insecticides and veterinary matters lies with the Inspection for Public Health Protection. This was a national organization before the dismantlement of the Netherlands Antilles. The then island territories had to indicate individually which island organizations were to carry out these inspections. This instruction was never given officially. The GGD performed the inspections on Curaçao, as approved by the country and the island territory. “One could therefore speak of a fictitious instruction. The executive organizations followed the instruction – if there had been any,” said Keli. The tasks of the government services were determined properly with the setting up of the new administrative organization. According to the business plan of the Ministry of Public Health, Environment and Nature, supervision and execution are separated. “The nine inspectors have not been transferred yet but fall under the responsibility of the Inspector for Public Health Protection,” said Keli. It boils downs to them performing the same work as before but then under the responsibility of the Inspector for the Public Health. The Inspection checks the temperature of all company processes (storage and preparation), the prevention of cross-infection and the implementation of a cleaning plan.

Course

At the request of several restaurant owners, the Public Health branch developed a hygiene course. Two groups have followed this course. “We will be offering this voluntary course to all institutions in the coming period,” said Keli. “However, the law will include the compulsory training and final inspection of the enjoyed training. This is besides the periodic individual inspection by Public Health Authorities of food handlers and others food preparation rooms.” The code for hygiene is available for those in the horeca branch. A team consisting of several government services hit the streets in June, July and August for rigorous inspections at snèks, restaurants and mini-markets. The results of the inspections pointed out a poor observance of the hygiene rules by many in the horeca branch, especially at Chinese snèks.
 

Source: Amigoe.com