Health Ministry assessing food-handling establishments following Hurricane Melissa

Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton says food safety assessments carried out at over 5,000 critical food-handling establishments following Hurricane Melissa found just over half of them being satisfactory, while 5,661 kilogrammes of food were condemned.

Tufton told the House of Representatives on Tuesday that warehouses, cold stores, high-risk establishments such as abattoirs, butcheries, poultry farms, markets, supermarkets, restaurants, food and milk-processing plants were targeted for assessment.

He said as of November 9, approximately 5,052 food handling establishments were assessed post Hurricane Melissa with 2,794 or 55 per cent being satisfactory, of which 100 were sited for violation.

Additionally, Tufton said large farms and food processing farms were visited and continued to be monitored to ensure that unsafe food is precluded from the country’s food supply chain and to prevent the outbreak of largescale foodborne disease outbreaks.

He said food safety interventions would be strengthened in the coming weeks as greater access is gained into the communities that were marooned and unreachable.

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