Dumaguete City (CNN Philippines) — The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) has trained about 60 food handlers in Negros Oriental on basic food safety.
In light of recent food poisoning reports, DOST NEGOR made proactive moves to prevent such incidences from happening in the province through the training.
According to DOST information officer Roslyn Tambago, participants represented the production unit of their firms like catering services, canteens, or street food stalls in Dumaguete City as well as some business firms, schools, and people’s organizations.
The two-day lecture and workshop held in July included topics on the importance of food safety, prevention of food borne diseases, proper hygiene and sanitation, among others.
DOST Food Nutrition and Research Institute (FNRI) trainer-officials served as resource persons and elaborately discussed basic nutrition, meal, and menu planning.
Josefina Gonzales of FNRI shared that “the real mistakes can happen at any step in the flow of food through the facility from receiving, storage, preparation, cooking, holding, cooling, reheating, or serving,” and “that food safety must be the top priority of any business.”
The facilitators also expressed that nutrition is as equally important as food safety in food preparation and showed the application of these principles through cooking demonstrations where participants were shown how to make their products more presentable.
Tambago said the activity is part of the DOST initiatives in Food Safety Act of 2013 or the Republic Act 10611, a law that aims to strengthen the food safety regulatory system in the country to protect consumer’s health.
