THE St Ann Health Department has introduced a series of compliance seminars in an effort to educate and sensitise business operators about the minimum standards they must meet while offering food for sale to the public.

In February the department ordered the closure of several food establishments which were found to be operating below the required standards.

At that time chief public health inspector for the parish Leroy Scott told the monthly sitting of the St Ann Municipal Corporation that a number of food establishments had been closed because of breaches of the Public Health Act.

“In February we had to order the closure of a total of six establishments, one wholesale, two supermarkets, two restaurants, and one pastry shop because we continue to have issues with food safety in some establishments,” said Scott.

“The violations were of unsanitary operations, intrusion of pest and some unsanitary lack of cleaning,” Scott divulged as he urged operators of food establishments to adhere to the stipulations of the Public Health Act and avoid the risk of being ordered closed.

At this month’s meeting of the corporation Scott said the first compliance seminar will be held on April 16 in Brown’s Town at the Wesley Methodist Church.

“The aim of these seminars is to empower operators to develop mechanisms and practices, to maintain compliance of their establishments,” said Scott at Thursday’s meeting of the corporation.

“I think too often we have had to take enforcement actions on food establishments. Some of the reasons we believe are preventable and so we want to engage owners and operators to ensure they are putting measures in place to avoid such occurrence,” added Scott.

He said the compliance seminars will be held in other commercial hubs in the parish shortly after the first one in Brown’s Town.