Only two of 23 govt hospital kitchens in Sabah GMP certified
KOTA KINABALU: Two of the 23 government hospitals in Sabah have received Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) certification for its kitchen.
The kitchen operators from Pitas and Ranau District Hospital received their certificate of appreciation yesterday.
State Health Department director Dr Christina Rundi said the department is currently pushing for all government hospital kitchens in Sabah to be certified with GMP and HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) based food safety management system to ensure all food prepared and sold in their premises is safe and healthy.
“Obtaining GMP and HACCP certification is important for the department to ensure our efforts to promote food safety among Sabahans are not wasted. Apart from that, we are also advising all local food operators to obtain Food Operators’ Training Programme (LPM) certification, a prerequisite for all businesses that directly handle food preparations and services to avoid and prevent food poisoning,” she said.
Rundi said this at the state-level Food Safety Carnival at Suria Sabah Shopping Mall, which was launched by Assistant Minister to the Chief Minister, Datuk Edward Yong OuiFah.
She added since the implementation of LPM in 1996 until June this year, a total of 29,391 food operators have been trained in Sabah.
A number of activities have been implemented by the department in cooperation with the Health Ministry and the other related government agencies, including Squad Germ Buster (SGB) and Kendiri or Self Inspection, but Rundi stressed that such activities should be continued to ensure its messages will reach to all levels of the community.
This year, two series of inspection and closing operations have been carried out where 27 out of 128 food premises were ordered to close due to cleanliness reason.
Rundi said that the department would be working closely with the other agencies, including schools, to ensure all parties involved in food preparations follow the rules and put safe food as their priority.
Meanwhile, Yong, in his speech said he supported all the efforts made by the State Health Department to reduce food poisoning cases in Sabah.
A number of activities were organized during the event including choral speaking and food safety quiz for secondary schools.
Source:
Published: 28 Oct 2013
