Dr Jamilah (fifth left on stage) and Jefri (fourth left on stage) in a photocall together with certificate recipients and other department officials.
KUCHING: The most common complaint received by the Sarawak Health Department on food safety is dirty premises.
Its director Dr Jamilah Hashim said these were eateries where rat faeces had been found and so on, which compromised food safety and quality.
“These premises were issued with notice to close for 14 days to clean up. After that, they have to contact the department for inspection before they are allowed to re-open,” she said prior to declaring open World Food Safety Day celebration here yesterday.
She said the importance of strict control in the entire food supply chain was to ensure safety and quality.
“Various pollution sources must be controlled in the entire chain, from raw materials to processing, transportation, preparation and finally to the consumers. Any break in the chain will adversely affect consumers.
“Through strict control of the food supply chain, all stakeholders must implement an effective safety system so that unsafe food will not be in the market at all. The sooner the source of any pollution is detected, the better it is so that action can be taken fast,” she said.
On the World Food Safety Day celebration, Dr Jamilah said it is an opportunity to remind all on the importance of food safety.
“For the first time, the United Nations, with the support of World Health Organisation, and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), declared June 7 as World Food Safety Day with the theme ‘Food Safety, Everyone’s Business’. It is introduced to increase the awareness of food safety by making sure attention is given to prevent, detect and manage the risk of food-borne diseases.
“According to WHO, one in 10 people in the world fall ill after eating contaminated food. As many as 420,000 people, out of 125,000 are children below five, died from food-borne diseases.
“WHO also estimated that contaminated food caused more than 200 types of diseases – from diarrhea to cancer We support this global initiative because it is a timely reminder on how important food safety is,” she said.
Dr Jamilah added that in Malaysia, the planning, monitoring and food safety control activities were implemented under the Food Safety and Quality Programme covering state, division and district levels as well as entry points, where local or imported foods have to abide by rules in the Food Act 1983.
Earlier, the state Health deputy director (food safety and quality division) Mohammad Jefri Crossley said the department would take action to investigate any reports of compromised food safety.
“Food safety is not a new issue, particularly now with social media where any information can go viral.
“Fear and worry spread faster with social media, so we at the food safety and quality division will also have to question the authenticity of the viral messages by investigating them,” he said.
Also at the event, 15 food operators were given the Bersih Selamat dan Sihat (BESS) certificates, while 10 received the Makanan Selamat Tanggungjawab Industri (MeSTI).