DUMAGUETE CITY, April 22 (PIA) – Some 35 micro, small and medium scale enterprises (MSMEs) from 19 manufacturing firms were trained recently on basic food safety awareness at the Nutrition and Dietetics Department at Silliman University (SU), this city.
The seminar intends to strengthen and sustain the food safety standards among manufacturing enterprises in the province so that products will be globally competitive when it enters the international market.
“Food safety must be top priority of any business since its main objective is not just to provide food to the customers but protect every individual’s health and well-being as well,” said Assistant Prof. Gemma Kitane, one of the resource persons.
Basic Food Safety Seminar is a series of trainings set for this year by Department of Science and Technology-Negros Oriental Provincial Science and Technology Center (DOST NegOr PSTC ) in cooperation with SU’s Nutrition and Dietetics Department and the Negros Oriental Food Safety Team (NOFST).
SU professors Kitane and Dr. Michele Naranjo and members of NOFST served as resource persons and discussed food safety, current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP), Sanitation Standards Operating Procedures (SSOP), food hazards: physical, chemical and biological, and good practices which include organizational setup and training, personal hygiene, sanitation of food contact surfaces, and storage/warehousing and product distribution to local entrepreneurs.
During the one-day training, the speakers emphasized the presence of preservatives in most of the products sold in the market today.
Dr. Naranjo warned food handlers to avoid patronizing those goods with preservers.
Deformed canned goods are primary carriers of Clostridium botulinum, a very harmful bacteria created due to the microbiological contamination in the can, it is said.
With the enactment of the Food Safety Act of 2013 or the Republic Act 10611, it strengthened the food safety regulatory system in the country to protect consumer health and facilitate market access of local food and food products and for other purposes.
With this, there is now a legal framework requiring food manufacturers and processors to implement traceability systems. rmn/(jct/PIA7-Negros Oriental)