Service providers need to do more to ensure food safety and hygiene

Food vendor in Ganjoni, Mombasa makes a meal after the county department of health announced that it would shut down food kiosks following a cholera outbreak in April 2015. PHOTO | LABAN WALLOGA

What you need to know:

  • Given that demonstrable food safety management is seen as voluntary for food service providers, combined with the fact that consumers do not strongly demand it, many premises lack the impetus to adopt strategies that safeguard consumers from food risks.
  • Kenya’s increasingly complex food supply chain, changing consumer preferences and food consumption patterns, make it necessary for food service providers to modernise their approach to risk mitigation, by adopting best practice in food safety management.
  • Caterers should assess and be aware of food risks on their premises and in their workforce, know how to manage them through an evidence and knowledge-based approach and communicate effectively about the risks and their management.

Two weeks ago, a cholera outbreak linked to food that was catered at a local wedding caused several fatalities and many hospital admissions, eliciting debate on the subject of food hygiene and safety, which shouldn’t be confused with food security.

The cholera and salmonella outbreaks we have witnessed in the recent past are predictive indicators. If nothing is done to mitigate their causes, we could see a recurrence and even more fatalities. Food hygiene and safety can be managed and there are policies to guide it, but it is often overlooked.

Through the Public Health Act, the government has provided legislation and supporting structures for food safety management, although they are fraught with efficiency and operational challenges.

Therefore, ultimately the duty to protect consumers from food risks and to ensure that the food they consume is safe rests with the food service providers, majority of whom do not manage food hygiene and safety as an operational risk.

Given that demonstrable food safety management is seen as voluntary for food service providers, combined with the fact that consumers do not strongly demand it, many premises lack the impetus to adopt strategies that safeguard consumers from food risks.

SAFETY CREDENTIALS

The cost of foodborne illnesses is borne by an already strained healthcare system, the workplace and the education system, through lost productivity. Reports of foodborne illness outbreaks, also tarnish the country’s international image as a desirable tourist destination.

Kenya’s increasingly complex food supply chain, changing consumer preferences and food consumption patterns, make it necessary for food service providers to modernise their approach to risk mitigation, by adopting best practice in food safety management. Caterers should assess and be aware of food risks on their premises and in their workforce, know how to manage them through an evidence and knowledge-based approach and communicate effectively about the risks and their management.

SafiServe research has shown that most food workers do not possess the knowledge required to manage risks, therefore, as consumers, we must also do our part by challenging our assumptions about the ability of caterers and food vendors to ensure that the food they serve us is safe. We must demand demonstrable food safety competence such as the use of the globally recognised food safety management system called the hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP), which helps to anticipate and remove food hazards during and after production to ensure food safety and safeguard the consumer’s well-being.

Additionally, by requiring food safety credentials, as the minimum entry-level requirement for employment in the food service sector, employers provide impetus for a workforce with essential skills and credentials needed to manage and reduce food risks on their premises.

We cannot afford to ignore foodborne illness because it does not only cause unpleasant symptoms, it can lead to lifelong health complications and even death. Therefore, food safety management is everyone’s responsibility and the unfortunate cholera outbreak in Karen should, by way of caution, serve to remind us that foodborne illness, which is also a health, social and economic development challenge, does not discriminate; it affects us all and we should all do something to prevent it.

 

Mr Kibe is the programme director of SafiServe, a programme that helps food service providers adopt food hygiene and safety