 Hello and welcome to another episode of Issues and Answers, a production of the Government Information Service. I am Melissa Joseph. In this episode, we're speaking with the Senusia Bureau of Standards and its Bureau is having an upcoming Basic Food Safety Training Seminar that's taking place on the 30th of March 2022. To discuss with us, the program is the head of the Certification Department at the Bureau of Standards, Chiefs Dr. Zendoubison. Thank you so much for speaking with us in today's program. Thank you Lisa for giving us the opportunity to do so. Let's talk about the why of the seminar that's coming up before we get into the the integrity of what the seminar is going to cover. We know that we've increasingly seen a proliferation of eateries around St. Lucia. And for the Bureau of Standards, given what your mandate is, you have a pulse on that sector. So talk to us about the sort of food training programs that you've had over the years. Okay, like you rightly said, our mandate is that of the protection of the health and safety of consumers. And we have a food certification program. And that food certification program looks at certification of food establishments to food hygiene. Of course, whenever we do certification, we do it against the requirements of standards. And way back in the early 2000s, while we had the program, we were administering the certification program, we've recognized that a lot of persons have not received formal training in food safety. And that still continue to exist. So we started the program. And definitely as COVID happened, then we recognized that there was no training and we need to resume. So this is why we actually have in this session. So we're hoping that persons take full advantage of it. And you mentioned COVID. And as I indicated, we've seen a proliferation of eateries around the place, some of them formal establishments, others are just like little pop-up shops. And that, of course, we understand the economic impact that COVID has had on the society. So people are increasingly finding ways of being able to earn a livelihood. So this sort of ad hoc growth that we see in the food sector, how much of a challenge does it pose for institutions like the Bureau of Standards when you deal with food safety? Yeah. Like I said, through our certification programs, when you go into these establishments, you see the different practices. And even as consumers, we go into establishments. And what we do see, we realize, I mean, there is definitely need for more training in food safety. And even like when we say that some food safety is basically, it's a concept that when you eat food, that it will not make you sick. But guess what? Most persons, when they get sick from eating food that is not safe, they don't really reach the healthcare facilities. They would stay at their home. And the only time they would go is when they're extremely sick. And we recognize that we really need to do something about it. So which is why we need to ensure that persons are adequately trained in food safety. And this training is really basic. So it's really the different practices that one should engage in while preparing food so that persons who eat their food remain safe. So let's bring down that concept. So when we talk about food safety, what does it really mean? Yes. So food safety is basically the concept that when you eat the food, that persons will not get sick. That is, of course, if it's eaten according to the instructions. Because if, for example, you were to buy a particular drink, a beverage, and you told that that beverage has to be kept below four degrees Celsius. But of course, like we do, like maybe on a Saturday that we shop, we buy the products. And all throughout the day, we have the beverage in the hot car. And of course, that can make you sick. So our training looks at everything in the food chain from the time the products, the raw materials are procured, to the materials being stored, to being used to prepare the food, to how the food is served, to how the food is packaged, to how it's distributed, transported. And of course, to how consumers eat it, which is why the label is important as well, informing persons as to how the food should be eaten, how it should be stored, how it should be fed, etc. Very interesting. You know, we normally simply refer to it as food poisoning. But as you rightly said, people stay home until they get critically ill. That's not the time they seek medical attention. But so food poisoning has food, foodborne illnesses. It's a very, very serious thing. And in the aspect of being able to handle how you handle the food in the preparation stage really determines how one wants someone to eat that food, whether they are eating contaminated food or not. So if you could talk to us about what then causes the foodborne illness. Okay, so there are many hazards that need to be considered or that exist. And those hazards are divided into three categories. So you look at biological hazards. And these are those that you will get from bacteria, from viruses, from fungi. There are other chemical hazards. And chemical stems from the farm, the pesticides, the fertilizers that they use, you need to ensure that the current concentrations are applied. And also that these things have withdrawal periods as well. So when it's used, then there's a period within which the product can be harvested. There are other chemicals that we use when we prepare food that can also harm you, which is why they need to be applied in the right concentration. So all the food additives that we use, even some food colorings. And allergens is something also that comes under chemical hazards as well. So we need to consider allergens. And we realize that the list of allergens keep increasing. So even celery too has something like celery is an allergen as well. Can you believe that? And so, and then you have other hazards like physical hazards, whether it be stones, wood or anything physical that would find itself in the food. Plasters, which is why the establishments need to ensure proper hygiene when it comes to preparing food. How are plasters used when persons handle food if they have an injury? Should they be in the food or should they not based on what they have? So these three hazards, if not controlled, can contribute to food becoming unsafe. So it can be, and when you get sick, you might have an infection from a bacteria. It can be a chemical that make you sick or something that will cause injury. You bite it and there's a hard stone in the food and then you break a tooth or something. So basically those three hazards are what we need to control while preparing food. So in terms of the practices now, in order for you to be able to keep those hazards to the very, very minimum or nonexistent at all, how do you go about ensuring that those steps are taken? So keeping the place clean, separating the foods and as you mentioned earlier the temperature and so forth. Okay, there are the World Health Organization has actually introduced just five basic steps in preparing food. So the first one is keeping clean and when we look at keeping clean, we speak about cleaning and sanitizing. We speak about even you as the food handler, how do you keep clean? You need to be clean when you're dealing with food, washing of hands and we know now with the pandemic hand-washing has become very important, not just in preparing food but I mean throughout your daily activities. Also separating your raw and cooked because sometimes you would go out and even my questions you would see in the barbecue grill raw and cooked food together. Yes, you see that all the time. Yes and even the same utensil that they used to pick up the cooked food they would use that same one to pick up the raw food and sometimes it's just a lack of knowing, they're not away and this is what the training brings to mind and awareness of what you do and how it can impact on the food. Also temperatures and cooking thoroughly is also important so and you know we have a culture where even with the pork you go you buy grilled pork and it's not properly cooked so cooking thoroughly is very important as well as the temperatures that you keep so if a food has to be cold you keep it cold if it has to be hot it's kept hot and even when we go and we buy buffets the buffet has to be kept at a particular temperature and all these things need to be monitored but sometimes you go to establishments and you see cold food being served and sometimes persons are not aware of that they're not aware that at room temperature that microorganisms can proliferate if the food is contaminated by mishandling it also using your raw materials whether you get your raw materials from you have to buy from reputable suppliers and all these elements that is what we're going to be discussing at the training so it's really just five critical steps that you need to follow and remember when you're preparing food to eat. I know that for people at home as well they must be saying but you know you're frying fish for example or you're frying chicken for example and you mentioned about using that same utensil that you are putting in and then you're taking out and but tell us about why is that so dangerous because it seems so small yet there is an inherent danger in doing that. Okay there are some products that would naturally have microorganisms for example something like chicken there's a tendency that chicken can have salmonella in it there's a tendency that beef can have equilineates and these are bacteria that make you sick so if like you said you have the raw product that you use your utensils the utensil becomes contaminated with that bacteria and then you put it onto the raw product the cooked product that you actually take in to serve me then guess what you do have that bacteria present on the cooked stuff and then I eat it I become sick I have a diary I stay home I'm not that sick so a lot of foodborne illnesses they are under reported and that's one of the problems under reported. And so it becomes a very crisis situation now for the Bureau of Standards and this training program coming up on the 30th of March is targeting the food food establishments all right are you are we looking at all sizes or are you looking at the small micro everyone because once you're a food handler and it's important to note when we say you're a food handler whether it is you're handling a product that is packaged and ready to go out you are a food handler so whether the food is cooked or whether the food is unpackaged or whether it's packaged and you handle once you're handling food you you are a food handler and we're targeting everybody so across the spectrum including supermarkets yeah because they would handle the food as well as well to put the food on the shelf so that's very important and so we're handling everyone and even the housewife because I mean there's so much that we do I mean we have a culture growing up that you would take the product out of the frozen meat and you leave it on the counter for God knows when because we wanted to do for you wanted to fall yes so you leave it there for all morning over four hours you know and you go in and you do your washing and everything else and then you have it there all the meat is soaking and yes you can have it to fall out so but you say these practices are not best yeah they're not best okay um and especially when of course you're handling food that you want to serve to consumers so we'll pick up for with the conversation right after this short break in with me from the Sinushabira standard it's Dr. Senth Dovizong keeping hands clean is important for good health however after a disaster staying clean is hard to do especially if there is no pipe or water simple things you can do stay clean and remain healthy are wash your hands with soap and clean water if these are not available sanitizers with alcohol are options wash your hands many times during the day before preparing food eating caring for a sick person or baby treating a cut wound or sore wash hands after using the bathroom changing diapers caring for animals caring for sick or injured persons after handling garbage washing your hands is one of the best ways to prevent illness for further information contact the Bureau of Health Education at telephone number 460-5349 welcome back to our discussion here on issues and answers with Dr. Senth Dovizong and we're discussing the basic training in food safety and it's a training seminar that the Sinushabira standards has coming up on the 30th of March before we went to break we were discussing some of the practices and even within the home setting and we were talking about a cross-contamination that can happen by using the single tensor with raw uncooked foods especially meats and fish and etc but another practice as we were saying is that leaving the meats out for it to thaw out and not healthy at all because you can create a situation where the food can become contaminated yes you can have the multiplication of bacteria if the food it has bacteria in it so what about the practice too and and of having the meats thought maybe you change your mind you've left it out for a period of time you change your mind now you're going to put it back into the freezer how does is that a safe practice as well but it's really not the best practice when you do which is why when you thaw in food out you're supposed to thaw it out in the refrigerator but most times you're very impatient and because it takes quite a while to thaw out in the refrigerator so we just put it out on the counter and as like we said this is not a good practice because at room temperature is really a temperature where bacteria can multiply and I mean they grow very fast so once that food is out and it's contaminated then the numbers become millions in no time at all and now some people believe that if they've cooked that food the meats and it's out there that perhaps you cook it perhaps late in the evening and you want to use it for the following day that it's okay that you could simply leave it out on the stove top well that's a very dangerous practice leaving food out foods should not be left out at room temperature for more than four hours and that's a basic rule in preparing food so if it's out more than four hours then the food establishments would have to throw that food away because you don't know so it's a basic rule okay don't do those things at all now for the bureau I know that the handling of food is one component of what you do when it comes to food safety not to walk us through some of the other elements that the bureau standard is engaged in when it comes to food safety and certifying establishments you know a walk through of in terms of what is needed to ensure that these establishments are correctly practicing the various steps for food safety okay so like we said the first step is to ensure that you are trained in food safety and we realize there's a need for that based on practices that we see while we do inspections as well as even while we as consumers go out to various establishments so it's very important that with our food certification program it's voluntary like I said but with that program you would need to have your license to operate from the ministry of health which is a regulatory requirement and once you have that and we also want to know that you've had some formal training in food safety so it's not just about having the health card but with that comes training so even if you have a health card you need to know that if you are sick you don't work when you're sick so it really emphasizes you know the different practices that that you need to engage in so once you do that you apply into our programs then we it have an inspection of the establishment so we go we look at your process we ask questions from the time you buy the raw materials to the time the food is prepared until it's packaged and it goes out to the consumer so we look at all these various elements in our food certification program and once that is okay then you get a certificate of food hygiene so it gives consumers that level of you know assurance that you know there are certain practices those establishments engaging to ensure or to try to reduce because sometimes you can never be 100% safe so at least you reduce the possibility that the food is unsafe and how do you keep the surveillance because you know you on the initial engagement with the establishment so forth yes everything will be great but how does the bureau now engage in the surveilling of these establishments to ensure that all is maintained all the time well you're right on track with the surveillance aspect of it so we have each of our the the certification program involves and unannounced surveillance audit so throughout within like six months or so we go into assess the facility again to ensure that they continue to do what they're supposed to do as well as complaints if you get any complaints on any establishment that we have certified it's also an opportunity for us to go in and to investigate what is happening because it has happened before we go in and investigate to ensure that they actually follow in good practices hygienic practices and the seminar again as we said is for the 30th of March now given COVID-19 you know any other time you would have seen that the bureau standards would have you know in your offices you'd have gotten all the scores of people coming in but now everything has to be done on the virtual end so talk to us about how you are facilitating um that seminar virtually okay the information is available on our website and you can actually go on the website to register and by registering of course we would we would know that you've registered and once you've paid you will get a link via zoom indicating that this is the link to join the session and of course I mean throughout the training we are going to make it interactive to ensure that everybody is engaged because we know that we do have um some challenges when it comes to online training some persons are behind and they're not actually engaged they're not participating so we definitely plan to make it very interactive so persons participate right and at the end of the session a certification for the participants yes they will receive a certificate indicating that they have been trained in food safety all right so the I know that we we started off talking about COVID-19 and while there is absolutely no evidence that COVID-19 is transmissible um by the food but certainly um how you handle the surfaces of where the food is being prepared is important because the science does say that COVID-19 the virus the South Covid-19 virus can survive on surfaces for a period of time so would the seminar speak in any great detail to how you really take care of your surfaces that physical aspect of where the food is being prepared yeah most definitely and like I said it's one of the first um practices keeping clean and keeping clean keeping your surfaces clean and even you as the food handler you're preparing the food you need to ensure that your practices if you touch any part of your body that you need to wash hands frequent hand washing to ensure that when you serve me for example if I go to buy food and you serve me and I handle the package my hands become contaminated if you have contaminated the product and then unaware I would go touch my nose such my eyes such put my hand in my mouth or something and then um that way you can become um you get sick and then that's what we are trying to avoid at all costs at all costs and so the basic training in food safety again being undertaken by the Senutia Bureau of Standards it's ready to provide participants with the knowledge of basic principles for the production of safe food in an effort to reduce the risk of foodborne illnesses and as we commonly say food poisoning and it's being held virtually the training includes PowerPoint presentations discussions and group activities which is what you speak to about being able to engage individuals so it doesn't become a monotonous yes definitely and in terms of the who would be leading the the various sessions is broken down it's an entire day from 9 a.m to 4 p.m so you have various presenters for the for that training yes definitely we have actually three presenters for the training so like you said it would break the monotony of that one person speaking all the time so we have some real competent persons to actually deliver the training so you want to give us the they are the it's now in in sections various headings topic areas yes you give us an idea about the topic areas maybe well we've divided it into the five keys to safe food so as we go through the keys then we highlight all the different practices to ensure that food is kept clean when we go to the next step cook thoroughly how do you ensure that it's cook thoroughly we go through all the different steps to ensure that we cover the five keys so basically it's like five segments all right and so interest so far and for individuals have you been able to monitor the traffic coming in on the website we've seen people expressing an interest to participate oh yes most definitely you have quite a few persons who have registered all right and you too can be part of that training seminar very very critical it's happening on Wednesday March 30th 2022 it's a one-day training session so it's not taking away too much of your time 9 a.m to 4 p.m it's happening via the zoom platform and once you have completed the entire day and you've made sure that you've participated in the group activities and so forth just to show right the doctor do this also show that you've now had a full comprehension of what the day's exercise was and then you'll be able to earn your certificate of participation at that time so don't forget all food handlers it is a call out to you for you to participate in this training program for more information you can contact the Senucia Bureau of Standards the telephone number is 453-0049 you can also call 4560102 or 4560546 you can also simply log on to the Senucia Bureau of Standards website and you will get all of that information right there and the registration is happening online as well yes okay so everything you can go on there do believe that you can also the QR code there that you can all of that is on the website for you to be able easy facilitation for you to participate in the basic training in food safety offered by the Senucia Bureau of Standards reporting words from you doctor do this as we say goodbye yes I also want to say if you have any problems registering online you can call and we'll facilitate the process for you so I invite everyone well food handlers as many as possible to take advantage of this training that we're going to have and of course there's a discounted rate before March 15th right and so the doctor do be so speaks about the race it's not direly costly it is a hundred dollars for you to participate and you also get if you register and you pay before February 28th you get a 30 discount and there's a 20 discount if you pay before March 15th as so and it's a very minimal cost for something that is of such great benefit yes so doctor do be so I want to thank you so much for coming in on two issues and answers and discussing with us the food safety very very important topic there we all eat and we all want to make sure that after that good meal or whatever it is that we've eaten we we feel good again to go the next round doctor do be so he's giving a chuckle thank you so much for watching and we do hope that for all those of you the food handlers are there that you register so that you can participate in the basic of training in food safety offered by the signature bureau standards i'm mr joseph see you next time