Food safety

Be Warned!

These sweets can be deadly

by Carol Aloysius

Coloured sweetmeats somehow find their way into many Avurudu tables. It’s just two days more for Avurudu and mass scale sweetmeat producers are everywhere tempting customers to purchase these brightly coloured sweetmeats. ‘Beware’ is the keyword.

The Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) cautions the public against purchasing bright coloured, mass produced sweetmeats from wayside eateries, retail and wholesale outlets. “These bright coloured sweetmeats bought and served may contain harmful colourants.

“This is the time when traders tend to flood the market with to- be expired and already expired food, sold at prices below usual market rates”.warned CMC Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr Ruwan Wijeyamuni.

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[Harmful dyes]

He urged consumers to smell, sniff, and inspect each item of these ready made sweetmeats.

If they are spoilt or contain toxic dyes, you could end up in hospital.

Be vigilant about brightly coloured sweetmeats such as coconut sweets and milk toffees. Besides the tendency to collect moisture and spoil quickly, they could contain harmful dyes”,

He said the CMC was focussing on the quality of traditional Avurudu food sold in the open market in the Pettah, Fort and the Manning Market. “ Our inspectors found spoilt grapes, appples and oranges sold in plastic covers to dupe the public.

[Analysis ]

“They also found coconut toffee, boondi and small tea cakes with unnaturally bright colours, samples of which we have been taken for analysis at our City Lab.

CMC Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr Ruwan Wijeyamuni

The results will be known in a day or two. Meanwhile, we advise the public not to buy sweetmeats that come in dubious colours. Always purchase food items from reputed dealers”, he stressed.

Director General Health Services, Dr P.G. Maheepala, who is also the Chief Food Authority, told the Sunday Observer, “Everybody should consume safe food. Growing children, adolescents to pregnant women and older adults should stay clear of unsafe food and water.

“Two million people worldwide including children lose their lives annually by consuming unhygienic and unsafe food . It is imperative that food eaten by people, especially if they depend on eateries while shopping, is safe.”

He said recent surveys by the Health Ministry had found that many eateries including star hotels failed to meet the food safety requirements. “Ensuring food safety needs a bottoms- up approach during harvesting, transporting, processing , storing and finally preparing food and the manner in which it is served” he said.

According to him, there are over 10,000 food handlers in the city alone and many thousands more unregistered outside the city who need to be educated about preparing and serving hygienic food.

[Quality]

“The consumer must also be concerned about the quality of the food he eats and take pains to examine the food, preparation and the immediate surroundings where it is being served” he said.

He also said the Health Minstry had developed a number of questions and answers on food safety, considering the knowledge gap among consumers and food handlers which include topics such as food adulteration, food fraud ( falsification of labels etc,), unheathy and unsafe food handling practices to avoid both in the food market and at home.

Health Ministry sources also told the Sunday Observer the Food Unit had put into action a new plan to register all food handling establishments, starting initially in Colombo and extending islandwide, inspect and rate food handling estabishements on merit, sample food from eateries and have them analysed in government labs. “

We are carrying out health educational activities on food safety across the country for traders, consumers , school children, and their teachers informing them of their rights, and telling them how to avoid buying outdated sub quality food as well as other consumer items”, a health official said.

[Policy on food safety]

Deputy Director Environmental and Occupational Health, Dr H.D. B. Herath drew attention to a wide range of health hazards associated with food such as, microbiological i.e.viral, bacterial, fungal and parasitic diseases, disesases from chemical substances as well as additives and contaminants.

“Biotechnology and nano technology has also resulted in the emergence of modified foods which though not a problem in Sri Lanka, could develop into a complex issue in the future.” he said. On food security, he said all food manufactured locally was governed by the Food Act .

“ The Minister of Health advised by the Food Advisory Committee ( FAC) is empowered to proclaim the regulations and the Director General Health Services as the Chief Food Authority, implements these regulations through the Food Comntrol Administration Unit ( FACU).

Our food safety activities at central level include; formulation of policy, legislation and procedures relating to food safety, food safety surveillance, food safety education and food safety training”, he said.

“ We have already drafted a food safety policy and are currently addressing food safety issues and the implementation of the Food Act at national level .. Food safety surveillance activities were also being continued at international, national and local levels. education on food safety was being given to health workers, those in the food industrty as well as consumers with special programs on food safety training for health workers such as PHI's, and food handlers", he said.

Complaints: Call CMC hotline 0112676161