Council warns ‘less clean’ premises to buck up
SARIKEI: Of the 135 eateries in this town, twenty- six have been rated as very clean; 97 premises ( clean) and twelve others ( less clean or ‘ kurang bersih’) in a grading system by Sarikei District Council (SDC).
The premises were issued Grade A, B, and C certificates respectively by the council yesterday.
SDC chairperson Wong Zee Yeng when presenting the certificates advised owners or tenants of premises which obtained Grade B and C certificates to buck up and earn the grade A certification during the next round of inspection.
She said premises with grade A certificates would be inspected after two years unless there were complaints which would compel them to conduct earlier checks.
The team would carry out another inspection after one year for Grade B premises and after six months for Grade C premises.
Any eateries which obtained 50 per cent marks and below would be categorised as ‘ Not Clean’, hence not eligible to be issued a certificate, and such premises would be required to send its food operators to attend food handlers’ course and the inspection team would come back to make another assessment within 14 days.
Wong warned that if the premises still failed to score above 50 percent marks, the council might seek the consent of the Health Ministry to close them. The council would also be obliged to revoke the certificates should there be cases of drink or foodborne diseases detected in any premises; from premises which failed to meet the set cleanliness standard; food operators who did not undergo medical checkup and vaccine against typhoid; food operator who did not attend food handling course; and breached the council’s licensing term and conditions.
A food technologist from the Divisional Health Office Sia Fong Ching gave a talk prior to the certificate presentation.