By Dex
1'
The rise in illegal food outlets in city centers, espe-cially in areas like the Central Business District (CBD), poses a significant threat to public health by increasing the risk of foodborne illnesses.
Unlicensed restaurants may operate without adhering to food safety standards, such as proper food handling, storage, and preparation, increasing the risk of foodborne illnesses.
The Public Health Act provides a legal basis for regulating food businesses, including licensing requirements, inspections, and penalties for violations.
Enforcing the Act through inspections, investigations, and legal action against unlicensed businesses is vital to protect public health.
The Public Health Act may include regulations for food safety standards, which specifies how food should be handled, stored, and prepared to minimise risks.
This Act provides penalties, such as fines or closure of unlicensed food establishments, for violations.
Local authorities also have a responsibility to enforce the Public Health Act within their jurisdiction, which includes regulating food establishments.
Relaxation in enforcement of such laws has also led to an increase in unlicensed restaurants, to an extent that they are operated out of private homes and residential kitchens other than the CBDs and industrial sites.
Section 91 of the Public Act states that no person shall sell, or shall prepare, keep, transmit or expose for sale, any milk, dairy produce, meat or other article of food which is not clean, wholesome, sound and free from any disease or infection or contamination and no person shall collect, prepare, manufacture, keep, transmit or expose for sale any such article without taking adequate measures to guard against or prevent any possible infection or contamination thereof.
It further indicates that any person who contravenes this shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding level fourteen or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years or to both such fine and such imprisonment.
Section 101 of the Act prohibits against the sale of meat which has not been slaughtered in a slaughter-house and also highlights that no person shall sell meat obtained from animals and birds unless the animals and birds have been slaughtered in a registered abattoir and have been inspected by a meat inspector employed by a local authority and unconditionally passed as suitable for human consumption.
Any person who acts in contravention of this shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding level seven or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months or to both such fine and such imprisonment.
Environmental health officers and technicians are responsible for monitoring public health standards in their respective areas and ensuring that the relevant public health legislation, such as the acts, by-laws and regulations are being complied with.
All health institutions are also inspected for registration with the Medical and Dental Practi-tioners Council of Zimbabwe (MDPCZ)
Food outlets should be scrutinised for compliance with such legislation. Premises dealing in hazardous substances should be inspected for registration, as are nursery schools, crèches, private school and commercial colleges.
The enforcement agencies who include the police, the health services department through its en vironmental health practitioners regularly conducts inspections in food premises to safeguard pub-lic health.
Food laws have provisions which deal with how food premises are to be maintained and how a food handler should conduct himself/herself in food premises,
According to this legislation all people working in food premises (food handlers) have to be medically examined. This is done to exclude people who are carriers of pathogenic microorganism from working in the food preparation area. When a food handler is suffering from cholera, shigella, flu, septic sores to name but a few they are not allowed to prepare food for the public.
Food and Food Standards Act and all the regulations made under it seek to ensure that the public gets to buy food which is wholesome and sound.
The law enforcement agencies are mandated to conduct food samplings to ascertain food quality either chemically or bacteriologically and normal-ly a food technician would buy food samples from retail outlets and the samples are taken for analysis at the laboratory to ascertain if the physical, chemical or bacteriological parameters of that sample fall within the legal limits.
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