THERE HAS NEVER been a case of food-borne illness within the School Meals Department.

This positive news has been indicated by Senior Administrative Officer of the Ministry of Education Sarah Brathwaite.

She made the comments Tuesday while speaking at the start of a food-handling training programme for School Meals Department workers.

Those workers who have been on the job for less than three years are taking the Basic Food Safety Course, a four-day 18-hour intensive programme.

The programme is part of a larger initiative by the Ministry of Health, Environmental Health Department. It is certified by the Barbados Community College and the Pan American Health Organisation, and is an effort to standardise food-handling training across Barbados.

The goal of the Environmental Health Department is to train 12 000 food handlers by 2012. "To date we have trained about 3 700," said Chief Environmental Health Officer Tyrone Applewhaite, who described the programme as one of the best in the region.

Applewhaite stressed the significance of the programme to the School Meals Department.

"Food-borne diseases usually affect the very young or very old . . . you are dealing with the most vulnerable group," he told the school meals workers.

Applewhaite told the DAILY NATION that he wished to remind the public: "If people are going into the food business – selling food to the public – they must first obtain a license from the Ministry of Health . . . I just want to let the public know too that that license should be placed in a very conspicuous place in the establishment, so that when you go in there you should know, well look – this place has been licensed. That is critical." (JH)