City bakery shut down for rats, roaches, raw sewage

If one were asked to identify the biggest change in the life of Belizean city and town dwellers over the last quarter century, a strong candidate would be the overwhelming takeover of the nation’s grocery and fast food establishments by immigrants from the People’s Republic of China. And as the Chinese retail presence has grown, so have the usual unfounded rumours of what goes on behind closed doors in crowded kitchens and warehouses. Well tonight News Five’s Janelle Chanona reports that some of those urban myths may have a basis in fact.

Janelle Chanona, Reporting
For thousands of Belizeans, buying bread is a daily ritual. But a public health crackdown this month at local bakeries has revealed disturbing realities inside some of the most popular vendors.

These photographs obtained by News Five of Kenji Bakery on Baymen Avenue were taken on Tuesday morning. The pictures document that the food preparation area includes obvious cockroach and rat infestation…these roaches had taken up residence in a bag of macaroon flour, rat faeces littered the heavily soiled floor … and more generally, the walls were covered in fungus and flour, holes in the walls and doors allowed cats, rats and dogs open access to the cooking area, while behind the building, a busted septic pipe was covered with a plastic bag to slow raw sewage leaks.

Mark Bernard, Senior Public Health Inspector, Central Region
?The conditions, it was in sanitary.?

According to Mark Bernard Senior Public Health Inspector of the Central Region, when his officers inspected the premises, they determined the business needed to be shut down immediately.

Mark Bernard
?We condemned some food items that were in the bakery and we have ordered them closed until they have made the necessary renovations.?

And that laundry list includes getting rid of the rats and roaches, sealing all animal entries to building, getting better storage for items like flour and sugar, putting in control mechanisms to stop water from getting into the building, properly refrigerating food, acquiring food handler?s certificates for workers, the wearing of aprons and hair restraints and removal of a number of dogs from close proximity to the bakery.

Janelle Chanona
?That sounds like it wasn?t anywhere that anybody should have been buying food from. How long do you suspect this was going on??

Mark Bernard
?Well, I?m not really sure. I cannot really say, but we do have a small staff and there is a lot of work to be done.?

Janelle Chanona
?Are you going to put in signs so that frequent customers know that there should be things in place, for their own protection??

Mark Bernard
?No, not exactly but we will monitor to make sure that they remain closed and that they are not in fact producing bread and distributing it. SO we are looking at them, watching them to make sure that they comply. We are not going to be unreasonable and say well look you need to comply with a hundred percent, but things that will lead to the spread of food borne illness for example the control of the rodents, the entry of rodents into the building, the current rodent infestation, the roaches that are crucial that play a key role in food borne illnesses, those are the areas that they need to comply with.?

By phone this evening, a spokesperson for Kenji Bakery promised that the business is being renovated according to the official instructions and will be clean in a matter of days.

The public health department hopes that by publicizing the state of the bakery, other businesses will get their act together. The move to clean up the city has comforted forty two year old Ramon Galvez. In October, he was diagnosed with leptospirosis after eating sliced bread from the corner store.

Ramon Galvez, contracted Leptospirosis
?I bought a bread and I made one sandwich and that?s when I notice the bread was bitten to the back.?

Within forty-eight hours, Galvez?s body was wracked by the pain of the deadly disease.

Ramon Galvez
?You start with like a bladder infection. You start to urine every half an hour and your urine is dark. Then it goes to your head and you head starts to explode like meningitis. Your eyes get yellow yellow. Your body aches like a flu or dengue. You have pain all over, back everything. I am telling you the truth Janelle, it frightened me because I had a friend that died from leptospirosis. You start thinking of your life finishing, it can just end like that. I have a little daughter that?s going to be one, my girlfriend is pregnant. You taking care of yourself and somebody else?s carelessness can get rid of your life … finish your life like that.?

Janelle Chanona
?I have to ask … are you still a bread eater??

Ramon Galvez
?No. I?m trying not to eat bread. I try to make stuff at my house or I buy corn tortilla. I don?t mess with bread none at all.?

According to local doctors, while statistics regarding the prevalence of leptospirosis are scanty, the disease is endemic to Belize.

Dr. Fernando Cuellar, Internist
?I?m sure we don?t have accurate numbers, but from a person who has worked in the public and private settings, it?s about one or two cases a month. Around that figure. It?s under-diagnosed so I?m sure that the numbers can go higher than that.?

Janelle Chanona
?If people do have a suspicion what should they do?

Dr. Fernando Cuellar
?Seek medical attention of course. They have to recognize symptoms are not the usual thing or flu it is a more severe headache, more achy body and joints, especially if you think your eye is getting a bit yellow and if there are changes in the urine, those kinds of things.?

Tonight Public Health officials tell News Five that with antiquated laws and overburdened personnel, the general public must play a role in making sure the food we eat is safe.

Mark Bernard
?The consumer needs to take more responsibility in terms of looking at what they are buying. Consumer education is very important because we cannot be everywhere at every time, so the consumer needs to report unsanitary conditions that they encounter to the Health Department, so that we can take action.?

Reporting for News Five, I am Janelle Chanona

The public health campaign will continue later this month with visits to all eight registered bakeries in Belize City.