Food Handling and Hygiene!
Look at the picture from Gbarnga recently. What do you see? A girl using her bare hands to count or repack the meat pie she is selling in a wide tray.Can someone at least suggest that she uses a clean plastic bag as a glove, if she doesn’t have a glove to handle the meat pie.
Well, someone reading this will think I am from the planet Mars to suggest the use of a glove or plastic bag. Right! And what make anyone think that Consumers don’t have the right to suggest a change in how they should be served? Or why does anyone think “things can’t be changed for the better” even if the present unsafe approach has been going on forever?
Well, food safety and food hygiene dictates that personal hygiene practices and cleanliness must minimise the risk of food contamination, including: not eat over unprotected food or surfaces likely to come in contact with food so as to avoid saliva and other body fluids from getting into food; do whatever is reasonable to prevent their body, anything from their body, coming into contact with food; wear clean outer clothing, depending on the type of work they do; not sneeze, blow or cough over unprotected food.
To avoid the unsafe food handling and poor hygiene, government institutions responsible for Food Safety and Hygiene must take immediate steps to put a stop to these unsafe food practices. These unsafe practices can result to the spread of diseases, including TB, Typoid Fever, lasser fever, among other illnesses. Measures must be put in place to ensure food and drinks sold on the streets, and in food bars and restaurants are safe for consumption.
