Crab Circle was ordered closed on Thursday, October 5, following a viral video showing unsanitary practices by a vendor.
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Food safety specialist Dr. Marva Hewitt
By Prince Moore
Food safety specialist Dr. Marva Hewitt says the revelation that vendors have been operating at a section of Heroes Circle, known as Crab Circle, without food handlers permits, toilet facilities and inadequate water, highlights a breakdown in the system that guards the health of consumers.
Concerns were raised about the operation of the vendors at Crab Circle following a viral video showing unsanitary practices by a vendor.
The Kingston and St. Andrew Health Department has since ordered the crab and corn vendors at the location to close their operations.
Dr. Hewitt, who is the Chief Executive Officer of the Food Hygiene Bureau Jamaica, says the issue is of major concern.
"It's saying that we're really in a crisis in this country because it's saying that we have breakdown in the basic system that guards our health as consumers, and unless we pull breaks, everything is at risk."
She argued that greater controls were in place during the COVID-19 pandemic, when food establishments had to maintain certain sanitary standards, but since the threat of the pandemic has diminished she has seen "very little controls".
"What we've seen is a population of food businesses that are operating at very, very poor standards, especially when it comes to ready to eat food. Literally, as you go along the road side, you will see them," she said.
Dr. Hewitt suggested there is need for an overhaul of the system that controls the country's food supplies.
"For example, this legislation itself, we're still operating in antiquated legislation. The Public Health Act is not comprehensive enough to deal with the food industry and the problems that we have with our food supply because the training, the health permits that we're basing our training on and releasing, it's not adequate education also, depending on the risk of the business."
She called for new food regulations as well as more rigorous processes for granting food handlers permits. She took issue, for instance, with the training and exam given for the permit.
"The thing is also that there's no measurement. For example, the permit is a generic permit. You get a permit to make sandwiches, and next thing you're opening up a lot of restaurants. That's the sort of thing we're talking about, where we need specific regulations to attach to the activities that we're doing, and we also need the documentation and the traceability, and also the authorities need to have a database of every single food business within the island," she contended.
Knee-jerk reaction
Dr. Hewitt has described the Kingston and St. Andrew Health Department's response to the health issues at Crab Circle as a knee jerk reaction.
She said the health department was not proactive in conducting inspections of the area to identify public health breaches.
"So in this case then, what I would have liked to see is for the authorities, once they know that these high risk premises exist, they should be actively doing surveillance and spot check these places, unannounced inspections, taking samples of these food to identify contamination at very early stages, rather than having this knee-jerk approach where they get a report - and in this case they've investigated - but persons have made reports and nothing has come out of it. So I'm just trying to say something here, that we need a three-pronged approach to food safety in this country."
Dr. Hewitt was speaking Thursday on Radio Jamaica's Beyond the Headlines.
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