At least 12 food outlets in Port of Spain were found to be operating under unsanitary conditions when public health inspectors visited their establishments last month.
By Rohandra JohnThis was revealed yesterday at a press conference hosted at City Hall where public health officials, including chief public health inspector in Port of Spain, Sayad Ali and Dr Daniel Chang, acting city medical officer of health.
They were accompanied by Mayor Murchison Brown and Loraine Alexander, chief executive officer of the Port of Spain City Corporation.
According to Ali, over 200 food outlets throughout the city were visited by health officials during October and at least 12 of them were operating under unsanitary conditions and in need of "major works".
Ali however said the owners of the outlets had agreed to voluntarily close their doors to effect the changes which were recommended by public health inspectors.
Alexander however indicated that of the 12 outlets, public health inspectors were not satisfied with the level of compliancy of four outlets -KFC, Independence Square; DE Balo's at 52 Park Street; Payless Supermarket; and Chemaal Ice Delights, St James.
Alexander said these four outlets, which had heavy roach infestation in general and were unsanitary, would be revisited again to ensure they comply fully with all the recommendations that were made.
In an immediate reaction, Prestige Holdings Ltd which operates KFC restaurants, said the areas about which the inspectors had some concern were in no way connected to insanitary food conditions.
At the end of their September 21 visit, Prestige said the health inspectors indicated that corrective work needed to be done to repair defective tiles, provide flaps for bins, provide sufficient lighting in waste storage areas, provide bait to prevent the presence of roaches, clean the fire escape area and repair a door in a bin holder.
And based on their comments, Prestige said remedial work was undertaken, adding that the inspectors returned on October 22 and indicated they were satisfied that the necessary corrective action was taken.
With respect to its St James KFC branch, Prestige said "the restaurant was never closed". It said based on the recommendations of the public health inspectors about certain corrective works that needed to be done "corrective action was taken immediately".
Chemaal's owner Wendell Stephens yesterday denied that his outlet was among those which did not comply with the recommendations made by the health inspectors.
Stephens said while health inspectors did visit his outlet last month "they left no notice indicating that I should close down. They visited and left. So I do not know how they could say I failed to comply with their recommendations".
Ali has called for authorities to amend the Public Health Act so that more serious action could be taken against the owners of unsanitary food outlets.
Following is a list of the places which Public Health Inspectors in Port of Spain, said they voluntarily closed to complete works given by the team:
- KFC, 125 Western Main Road, St James
- De Balo's, 52 Park Street
- Dairy Bar, PTSC compound
- KFC, Independence Square
- Wing Kong Restaurant, 4 Broadway
- Dragon Boys, 39 Independence Square
- Hong Sing Restaurant, 2 A Charlotte Street
- Payless Supermarket, 99-101 Charlotte Street
- Dairy Bar, 151 WMR St James
- Lanyap Grill, 97 WMR St James
- Chemaal Ice Delights, 137 WMR St James Maxi Taxi compound
- Maxi Association Building Cafeteria, PTSC compound
