Food safety and water quality training

The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), recently hosted food safety and water quality training with the aim of building the capacity of environmental health personnel to monitor food and water quality, and investigate outbreaks of food and water borne diseases.

Chief Environmental Health Officer, Parker Ragnanan, welcomed the support from CARPHA. The training, he said, will assist tremendously in the monitoring of water quality and determining the wholesomeness of food.

“I think this training puts us in a very good position to be able to analyze the quality of the water that is out there in distribution. Therefore, this is a brilliant initiative. When it comes to food safety and our officers go out there to do inspections of foods for wholesomeness, we depend solely on what is termed, “organoleptic” that is where you use your senses like touch, vision, smell. But in 2022, just an organoleptic evaluation and assessment is not adequate.”

Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Sharon Belmar-George, said the training will help Saint Lucia reduce the impact of food and water borne diseases.

“This training now allows us to undertake food and water testing across the island. We are highly dependent on tourism, and this will enable us to decipher in a timely manner where we may have issues with food and water quality, so that we can put effective measures in place to reduce negative impacts.”

The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) will provide training, equipment and the laboratory facilities needed to conduct micro-biological testing of food and water.