BAHA seeks safer food
Everybody has a role to play in food safety. That’s the message being delivered this week as The Belize Agricultural Health Authority and the Public Health Bureau launch a food safety campaign. According to preliminary research conducted by the Pan-American Health Organization, ten percent of Belizeans do not wash their hands after handling foods like raw meat or eggs and about a third do not realize the importance of keeping the kitchen and yard garbage covered. BAHA’s Director of Food Safety Services, Dr. Mike DeShield, says that during this week they will be giving food safety tips, as well as conducting other activities to protect the food Belizeans put on the table.
Dr. Michael DeShield, Dir., BAHA Food Safety Services
?Basically, we have a food inspection programme on the farm and at the slaughter plants. And that?s everyday we?re there from five, six in the morning, making sure that the animals coming in are healthy. We?re doing a post-mortem inspection to make sure that the meat is safe, then we bring it to the supermarket or the retail outlet, but the consumer may not know that that meat came from a facility that has inspection going on, so what we have is this little sticker that we?re going to be using on the retail outlet so it?s going to say inspected and passed by BAHA.?
Dr. Jose Lopez, Director, Central Health Region
?The Public Health Department is collaborating with this Food Safety Week. We?re going into schools, we?re going into the retail shops, and we?re making special efforts, for example with the night street vendors to make sure that the food that is consumed out there is safe.?
The campaign takes place under the theme: “Your Food, Your Health, Your Life.”
