Lau (centre) declares open the mini carnival.
KUCHING: Food safety starts from the source, at the farm for meat and fish to growing of vegetables and fruits, says David Lau, the deputy director of the state Health Department.
Food safety had to be monitored the entire stages – from slaughtering to transportation, storage and sale of meat until it’s cooked and served at eateries, he said.
Food-borne diseases and unsafe food threaten the health due to micro-organism contaminant, bacteria and virus, and caused food poisoning with symptoms o ccurring within hours or days of consuming the contaminated food, he said.
“Apart from micro-organism contaminant, heavy metal contamination, residue of medicines, insecticide and pesticide can be detrimental to the health,” he said at the opening of the Mini Food Safety Carnival (South Zone) here recently. Various steps and processes have been conducted by the Health Department like Clean, Safe and Healthy Certification enforced in 2013. This is a certification given to food operators to ensure they follow the guidelines and ensure that the operators are responsible in providing clean premises and safe food to customers.
“This certification also gives customers choices of premises that offer clean, safe and healthy food. In Sarawak, 42 food premises have been certified,” Lau said.
Checks were conducted at eateries to ensure they are clean. In 2014, a total of 65 notices were issued statewide to premises with compound amounting to RM5,700. For 2015 (as of April), 80 notices were issued and compound amounting to RM10,510 were collected. For closure of premises, 6,521 were inspected in 2014 and 76 premises were closed while this year (up to April) 2,579 premises were inspected and 12 were closed.
The carnival was held to commemorate International World Health Day which is celebrated on April 7 annually. The theme this year is ‘Food Safety – From Farm to Plate’. About 100 students from in and around Kuching were in attendance.