Clean your kitchens -food vendors instructed

by Carol Aloysius

With last minute preparations underway for the National New Year, the Health Ministry has called upon all vendors of ready made food to clean up their kitchens and provide safer cleaner environments for their customers.

" With so much painting and cleaning going on, this is the ideal time for these small time hotel owners too to clean their kitchens, get rid of cobwebs, paint their walls, repair furniture , broken gullies and clean blocked drains to ensure a more hygienic environment for people to eat in.", food Ministry sources said. They said that a list of guidelines had been issued to all food vendors under the Food Act and they were required to follow them. Included in this list were the provision of safe drinking water, soap and water for food handlers and customers to wash their hands , sanitary toilets with water to flush . "They must also ensure that cooked food is always covered ", he added.

"As tube well water can get contaminated with bacteria if there is no proper drainage, if an owner suspects the water is not clean he must get it tested and replace it with fresh tap water", a health official said.