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...
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