Knowledgeable and Skillful Food Handlers In School Canteen.. Compulsory Or Not??

Hello everyone,

Have you seen any of the food handlers in school canteen wearing exactly or similar to the picture? Ok, you have the answer...

Today i would like to discuss about food handlers. According to Malaysia Food Act 1983 (Food hygiene regulation 2009), a food handler is defined as "any person involved in a food business who prepares,serve, touch, package the food including drinks and handle kitchen and dining equipments,utensils, plates etc". So basically we have to understand that any person who are knowledgeable or not about food can be in the food business including school canteen.. Do you think preparing food for captive market at a fixed price is something easy to be handled especially for the customer who need to eat a well balanced diet for their growth? the answer is NO...

Since 2010, all food handlers are compulsory to attend food safety course if not that person can be fine at a certain amount..the fee to attend for the course is estimated below RM50. There are more than 100 qualified trainers appointed by the Minister of Health Malaysia.So, check their certification is it valid or not.... But for food business people who have more than 5 workers.. they will said it is costly.. Why do they say that.. because they are thinking about profit making... They never think of the risk that they put into.. especially to the children.. The trust that the school and the parents have on them... They never think about social responsibility... Why do this happen? Why must they become so selfish.. We are paying for their food but they never think of the risk that they are facing.. with a small investment to the workers to attend the course will actually help the food handlers to understand why they should carry out the good hygiene practices if not .. they just do what they thing is right although what they are doing is actually wrong and risky..The answer is the need for knowledge, knowledge, knowledge...

As a food handler especially in school canteen, we need to have at least a basic knowledge or skill in food handling . Why do i say so... this is because the food handlers should prepare the food that the customers need to have NOT only what the customers want to have... But now, we can see that most of the canteen just offering based on the limited budget to gain more profit from this captive market.. Who are the captive market... the students especially the primary students.. Getting fried noodles that only have noodles with soyabean ketchup with no chicken meat, very rare to find vegetables... What do the children gain from eating that fried noodles?? Just to fill up their tummy not in term of nutrition value at all..

Some of the food contracter just leave the job 100% to the food handlers, some of them totally not from malaysia... I am not saying the outsider coming to malaysia is not good but basically their background are not well educated and need a full supervision. In my opinion, we can have any type of people but by having a good experience, skills and education background will help to generate a better food service operation in schools.

My comments is not concluded to all the primary schools in Malaysia.. but the most sad things usually happened is in the government school. Why do this happen.. we have ways to choose food contractors. But why do we overlook this small things.. especially in term giving a healthy balance meals for our children..For example: Some of the Chinese school,such as for standard one and two students, the parents have to pay for a month in advance and they can choose the menu for their children.Surprisely, the food that had been prepared in the canteen is well balanced.

Its time for our school food service especially in primary school to have a paradigm shift.. The food service system need to have a better operating system for a well balanced meal for our children that spend almost 75% of their time in schools.. Not only our children can be excellence in education but also build up a healthy lifestyle for a better living...

Our School foodservice is stagnant...

Why do i say that our school food service is stagnant especially in rural area..1st the environment of the canteen is the same since 30 years ago till now. The differences are only there are curtains, tableclothes and fans but the table and bench are still the same been used till now. In term of technology wise, we are going forward like handphone, GPS, MP3 etc.. But why our institutional foodservice or school canteen are still stagnant?Look at the canteen kitchen layout and the equipment been used.. is it in the path for the better future for healthy eating. In my opinion, i dont think so...

And for sure the food contractor do not have standardized recipe.. What is standardized recipe? Well if they want to cook fried rice.. there should have the list of ingredients and method of cooking.. If they are offering fried rice for RM1.. The standardized recipe will help to formulate the cost of the ingredient for selling price at RM1..That's why we can see in different canteen there are variety ways food contractor offering fried rice. Why do the food contractor like to increase their food price?The reason is because of the cost of preparing the food are increasing because of our slow growth economy.. The food contractor will complained that they are not gaining much of profit. School food service is an institutional business.. it is not a commercial business such as fancy cafe or family, ethnic, fast food restaurant. The customers are captive market which means that they are the same customers everyday.

For me, that is not a wise way to solve the problem especially in Elementary school/primary school in suburban and rural area...The food contractor must not only have experience but also know how to make decision in managing school canteen. There are many ways we can reduce the cost of preparing the ingredients..A) Buy in bulk for non perishable item such as sugar,flour, rice etc.. B) Forecasting selling item for the whole week and plan to buy food for a week.. meaning food storage is important especially for perishable item such as poultry, eggs, vege etc. C) Menu planning is actually vital for the food contractor to plan what they should buy for future.. The most important thing is to select food vendors or suppliers.. Dont buy at grocery store in small amount because the price is different than buying in bulk..

I am not blaming food contractor 100%.. some are good especially for them who have foodservice experience and education background. That's why i dont agree when the tender is open for selecting food contractor to manage the canteen.. some of the selected food contractors didnt have any food service experience or education background. That's why food poisoning still happening in school.. According to World Health Organization (WHO) reported in 2008 that food poisoning is among the top five main notifiable disease in MALAYSIA. Majority of the outbreaks occuring in schools.. Are we proud about it? For sure the answer is NO. Its not that the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health didnt do their work.. They did what they can but we as parents, we have PIBG.. so what should we do?

The school management also have to play their role in monitoring the canteen activities.. They have the canteen mangement guideline as a reference..i understood why the canteen committees sometime overseen the activities in the canteen because they have other things to do according to the schedule and canteen is not their priority or expertise.. maybe its time to create a job where a person in charge of monitoring the canteen activities especially in menu offering.. maybe menu variety will help to balance up the children nutrients. But HOW do we do that?Hmm.. lets think...think... think..

Next issue.. who cooks for our children in school canteen? Local or foreigner?

This is my 1st blog

Salam and greetings to all who visit my blog..

This is my 1st attempt to have my own blog although there are thousands of bloggers out there that have a fascinating issues to share with.. But I wish to share my experience and thoughts with anyone about our school canteen. This blog is purposely to share with others about our school canteen in malaysia.. At the moment, i am a postgraduate student focusing on behavior change among food handlers in school canteen.. my background is more as a food service educationist and my interest is more towards school foodservice operation and management.

From time to time i will update my blog to share with all of u about our school canteen especially in Malaysia. I am writing here is not to give a negative aspect or provoking about our malaysian school canteen, just sharing with the readers the scenario for a better future..

i am just an amatur writer so i would like to apologize if my wording is not clear or understandable..maybe by having my own blog can help me to improve my writing skills and my english language..