2012-01-13
UWI FOOD SAFETY COURSE CRITICAL - BUDHAN
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce, Reginald Budhan.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce, Reginald Budhan, says food safety certification courses being offered by the University of the West Indies (UWI) is vital to the country meeting international requirements, particularly United States (US) regulations.
“The US constitutes one of our most important export markets. This training programme is particularly critical to us at this time, as it will assist our agro-processors to be in conformity with US food safety regulations,” Mr. Budhan stated, as he addressed the opening ceremony for a ‘Better Process Control School’ course on Monday, January 9, at the UWI’s Mona campus.
Designed specifically for supervisory and managerial personnel in the food industry, food inspectors and other individuals involved in quality control, the food safety certification programme will provide instruction in 15 topics, which are examined for certification. It is part of the regulatory requirement in Jamaica and the US for food industry personnel.
The Permanent Secretary pointed out that today’s global food market has placed greater onus on governments to undertake the regulatory responsibility of ensuring that the food being traded inside and outside their countries’ borders is safe for consumption, which is why certifying food processors is so critical.
He said that as part of its response to the FSMA, Jamaica has established a national task force to drive the process of ensuring the country’s preparedness to satisfy the FDA’s requirements as elaborated in the Act.
“This multi-sector group, among its other responsibilities, is assisting in the sourcing of funds to enable both the private and public sectors to upgrade to the required level as well as to encourage, through a corporate mentoring programme, large successful companies to mentor smaller companies in need of development,” he said.
Mr. Budhan further noted that the Ministry also took an important policy decision last year to significantly intensify its training of companies in the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) system and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to enable companies to be certified and laboratories to become accredited.
In addition, the Permanent Secretary noted that a National Food Safety Policy was approved by Cabinet last year.