It was “crowning” glory when three giants in the hotel industry and three in the fast food service in the city of Colombo were recognized for their food hygiene last Wednesday.
Five gold crowns were awarded to each of the five-star Cinnamon Grand, Hilton and Galadari hotels and also Dinemore Restaurants (Pvt) Ltd., Gamma Pizzakraft Lanka (Pvt) Ltd. (Pizza Hut) and Abans Restaurant System Ltd (McDonalds) at a ceremony held at the Cinnamon Grand.
Food hygiene in the city has been under the microscope for a while, with the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) taking the lead in cracking down on bad practices.
“The crowns awarded under a public-private partnership are not forever,” stresses CMC’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Pradeep Kariyawasam, explaining that the certification has to be renewed every year.
The ‘Crowns for food hygiene’ programme has been launched by the CMC in partnership with Ind-Expo Certification (Pvt) Ltd., a joint venture of the Ceylon National Chamber of Industries and the National Chamber of Exporters of Sri Lanka. The programme is supported by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and is being implemented in affiliation with the Ministry of Industrial Development. The certification can be cancelled within the valid one year if certain conditions are violated including a change in the premises or nature of operations, validation of a customer complaint or Food Act issues.
This is a pilot project in which 15 organizations took part, says Dr. Kariyawasam pointing out that five crowns denote ‘excellence’, four ‘very good’, three ‘good’, two ‘normal’ and one ‘poor’.
One five-star hotel didn’t make the grade to get five crowns and has been asked to meet the CMC’s criteria, the Sunday Times understands.
For Dr. Kariyawasam a matter of particular concern currently is the use of tube well water in some leading hotels as well as restaurants. “Tube well water is prohibited in the kitchens as the chances of faecal contamination are high,” he says. “These places assure us that this water is sterilized and used only for bathing and washing. This is something we will be looking into.”
With regard to the health of food handlers, he says that it is essential for managements to get their workers medically examined and this is why the CMC has started from the top by checking out the star-grade hotels.
Pointing out that diseases like typhoid and hepatitis should be kept away from the kitchens, he says hotel managements should screen their food handlers. Then they will be able to vaccinate those who have not contracted these illnesses to ensure that they are not passed on to guests.
Meanwhile, of the nearly 1,000 places serving food, around 690 middle and small-scale places were raided recently and legal action initiated against 270 for preparing food under insanitary conditions, the Sunday Times learns.
Twenty eating places dishing out faecally-contaminated food have been sealed.
Deadly bite of bright coloured fruits!
Beware of those bright red apples, the dark purple grapes or the nicely-yellowed bananas that hang temptingly in stalls at the Manning Market.
For they may have been generously sprayed with a chemical, points out Dr. Kariyawasam, disclosing shocking findings unearthed in raids of 114 stalls both fruit and other consumables.
The white coating on grapes or brown spots on bananas may be an indication that a chemical has been sprayed, he says, urging that fruit should be washed well with soap and water or even peeled.
Eighty-six samples from fruit stalls have been sent to the City Analyst while a tractor-load of rotten fruit was destroyed, the Sunday Times learns.
Many people crowd these stalls to buy half-rotten fruit at cheaper prices which they in turn make into juices for the unsuspecting consumer, Dr. Kariyawasam said.
The raids had also yielded puskapu the (fungus-ridden tea) and “coloured” dried fish and prawns. What the CMC is now checking is whether these are permitted colours or those hazardous to human health. |
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