LOCAL FOOD handlers permits will soon carry photographs of the holder as well as tell in which region or parish he or she is allowed to sell.
That is part of a new-look food handler certification system that should be implemented in a few months when the Ministry of Health completes its revamping and standardisation of the system under which the island's food
handlers obtain and maintain their permits.
Food safety specialist in the Ministry, Peter Knight confirmed the revamping on Monday, stating that the photograph will be in
the top right hand corner of the permit.
Technical experts in the Health Ministry have created a new food handlers' policy and procedures manual, which reportedly sets out training arrangements and other activities to benefit and regulate thousands of local food handlers.
Responding to other questions on the matter, Mr. Knight said that the new changes will also see food handlers' permits being coded or serialised and entered into a data base "so at any time once the system is up and running, it should be able to tell you how many food handlers we have in each region and in what categories they are," continued Mr. Knight.
Food handlers themselves will be placed into 14 broad categories for training and monitoring so new applicants and seasoned professionals such as butchers, street and itinerant vendors like jerk chicken salesmen, restaurant, snack shop, canteen and processing plants workers among others will head back to school to get formal training.
FOOD PREPARATION
Mr. Knight said that the main objective was to prevent or reduce the prevalence of food-borne illnesses attributable to poor food preparation, handling and vending operations. The Ministry also wants to improve the standard of food handling and standardise and regularise the procedures involved.
"What happens in Kingston should be the same thing happening in Montego Bay or in Negril (so) that anywhere in the country a client goes, it is the same procedures that they will meet," he said.
The changes in the food
handlers certification programme also follows the Ministry's move from "a medical programme (permits issued based on taking a medical) to one that is rooted in education and training of the handlers. We are also going to require all food handlers to complete the general training programme in addition to completing training for a specific category in which the person works."
CLASS MODULES
There will be class modules and set procedures discussed including how to go about getting a food handlers' permit among other things when the manual becomes public. A copy will be in the Health Ministry's library.
The training will be in cycles and the regional health authorities will be allowed to choose training dates for various categories of food handlers in their regions.
"It does not make sense for us to have 40 people in a class and 10 of them belong to a different category. There are some food handling requirements which are not common across the board so what you want to do is give, for example, the street side or itinerant vendor special training that is related to their field," he said.
The food handlers may begin feeling the effects of the changes in how they are being regulated in as little as two months.
Mr. Knight stressed that the yearly permits will still cost $500 and that the Ministry was not recalling valid food handlers' permits but would wait until they expire.
"Let us say your permit expires in June, we are not telling the person to come in now, we are allowing the person to operate until June when the person's comes up for renewal," he said, reminding Jamaicans that penalities range up to $50,000 for persons operating without food handlers' permits.
