BAHA opens new central lab
The funny sounding acronym seemed to jump out of nowhere, but before long its influence was felt everywhere…from medfly quarantines in Toledo to suspected swine fever in Cayo. And today the folks from BAHA showed off their new home in Belize City. Marion Ali reports.
Marion Ali, Reporting
It is the body responsible for the quality and safety of the things we eat. And today the Belize Agricultural Health Authority officially opened its Central Investigative Laboratory in Belize City.
According Doctor Michael DeShield, Director of Food Safety for BAHA, the authority will now be able to meet international testing standards.
Dr. Michael DeShield
“If we get a positive we would have to do confirmatory testing, and that’s more sophisticated testing which we have to send out right now to regional labs. But come early next year we will be getting the equipment to do those confirmatory testing right here. So everything is gonna be done right here.”
“Each country has their own requirement, so the country would give us that requirement that they need and then we would test it and show them the levels that we get here and verify it.”
Minister of Health, Jose Coye, says his ministry’s role is to take a preventative approach.
Jose Coye, Minister of Health
“We have the public health people within the Ministry of Health, the public health inspectors who do the inspection of the food vendors, the restaurants, et cetera, now BAHA will support also the public health side is doing. Where there is doubt about the food, BAHA is there with the investigative capacity now to be able to determine the status of that food.”
But while the lab will seek to recover costs, it is not looking to be a profit maker.
Dr. Michael DeShield
“I don’t think most of the processors probably won’t pass that on because we’re doing that as it is right now and I don’t see a big increase in some of the products that we’re testing. And we work, we have user groups, we work with the processors and we show them the actual costs for us to provide this test and it’s still kind a subsidized a little bit. So it’s not for profit-making. It’s just to make sure the reagents and to provide the service on an efficient basis.”
BAHA is comprised of the Animal Health, Plant Health, Food Safety, and Quarantine Departments. Its new Central Investigative Laboratory is housed at the former veterinary lab on Saint Joseph’s Street.
Marion Ali for News 5.
Renovations and retrofitting of the lab were done at a cost of four hundred and fourteen thousand dollars. Loan funding was provided by the Inter-American Development Bank.
