School canteens to be registered with CMC

by Carol Aloysius

All school canteens in the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) area, including mobile canteens serving food to school children outside school premises are now being registered by the Colombo Municipal Council.

"This is the first time we are registering school canteens on such a large scale. Our objective is to maintain the highest standards of hygiene and food quality consistently throughout the school calendar", Chief Medical Officer, Health and Head of the Public Health Department of the CMC, Dr Ruwan Wijeyamuni told the Sunday Observer.

Recent inspections by the Food inspectors of the CMC revealed that many school canteen owners were violating the Food regulations and serving unhealthy, unhygienic food to school children. "Fast food although banned is still being sold in certain schools. Food with excessive salt and sugar, laced with toxic additives and dripping with oil and fizzy sweetened drinks could lead to obesity, diabetes, cholesterol and hypertension in school children at an early age. We are discussing healthier substitutes using local grains and cereals, which could be used instead, with canteen owners. We also hope to shortly introduce a fruit juice to substitute these fizzy unhealthy drinks", he said. He said food handlers in school canteens too will have to undergo medical inspections to see they don't pass on any infectious diseases to students.