Group A:Day 8 Kuala Muda

FOOD!!

Since most of us are dieting currently it became a sensitive words among us. Lol. Anyway, today the food quality control unit was in charged. As usual, we had a briefing and bombarded lots of questions to them, in particular how they monitor the quality of food and what parameters they used. Since we were so enthusiastic and “aggressive”, Mr. Suhaime and his colleague quickly took some folder with different colors that look like this…

Notice the tagging with different colors in the front page of the folder? It’s for the grading of the food premises. Of course, grade A is the best while grade C is considered as fail.

Grade A------- >=75%

Grade B------- 51-74%

Grade C------- <=50 (the premises will be closed down)

The green color is for restaurant, the orange folder is for makeshift stall, while the red one is for canteen and hawker. In fact, not only the color that differentiate them apart, the food quality control form or checklists they used were also different. As an example, for restaurant, they have a special column for toilet while others don’t have. The health officer will give marks according to the form and act accordingly. The forms are shown below..

Notice the tagging with different colors in the front page of the folder? It’s for the grading of the food premises. Of course, grade A is the best while grade C is considered as fail.

Grade A------- >=75%

Grade B------- 51-74%

Grade C------- <=50 (the premises will be closed down but during this period, they can apply for reopening, which will guarantee a second checking)

As for what they will bring along, they have a “kit” as shown below,

- Checklist

- Infrared Thermometer

- Tag and identification card

There are 7 officers in food quality control unit, of which one of them will do the paper work, 6 officers will divided into 3 teams, 2 officer each, and they will either inspect the premises or take food sampling.

We followed 2 teams, one is to TESCO and the other one is to VILLAGE MALL.

A trip to TESCO

Here, we took samples of wet food at random and sealed it, before transporting to laboratory in Bukit Kayu Hitam via cold box. When asked about quantity they need to take, they give some practical examples.

Chicken- at least 1kg

Fish- at least 1kg

Eggs- at least 10eggs

Prawn- at least 1kg

The lab will test for CHLORAMPHENICOL, FORMALDEHYDE, etc.. surprise right!

As for the dry food, they usually takes 3 samples, of which one will send to lab, one will keep it in their office, one will be seal at the place where they took. Their target is to collect 900 samples in a year. Any violation of food act, the manufacturer but not the seller will be responsible for it.

A trip to VILLAGE MALL

We split into 3 teams, of which they will inspect the food premises in village mall, Secret Recipe, Pizza Hut, Starbuck and Chicken Rice Shop. Usually they will ask for TY2—to prove that for all the food handlers there took the typhoid vaccine, and the city council license. The TY2 is compulsory for all food handlers to take it to provide 3 years immunity against Salmonella typhi.

Next, they will assess the kitchen, food storage, dustbin, and sewage system based on the forms and criteria provided by the ministry of health. All the restaurant in Village Mall achieve an A list score and only will be reviewed once a year unless there are any complaints by the public.