Kuala Muda District Office - Day 7

Assalamualaikum and Salam Sejahtera.

Review of day 7 (24-11-2011)

Today we visited the Food Safety and Quality Unit of Kuala Muda District Office. The day sets of at 9am in the morning with a brief welcome speech by En. Zainal, Head of Food Quality and Safety Unit. According to En. Zainal Food Quality and Safety Unit was once under Environmental Health Department but now it stands independently by itself. Currently the leader of the unit is En. Zainal and the organization chart of Food Quality and Safety unit of Kuala Muda district are as follows:-

Encik Zainal, Head of Food Quality and Safety Unit of

Kuala Muda District

Plans for Food Quality and Safety Unit starts at the Ministry level where the Ministry Department prepares the plan and passes it to the state while state passes the plan to the districts offices like Kuala Muda District Office. All the plans prepared by the ministry depends on the population of a particular district. However, according to En. Zainal some of the plans could not be executed since they lack officers at the district level. Currently there are only 6 officers working in Kuala Muda Food Quality and Safety Unit.

The following are the major and minor activities conducted by Kuala Muda Food Quality and Safety Unit:-

Major activity:-

1. Food sampling

• 900 samples in Kuala Muda were collected this year(2011)
• main form of samples include chemical, physical and biological samples
• samples are collected according to schedule
  
• samples are collected from restaurant, food company, schools(100% priority is given and done twice per year)

Minor activities:-

1. Pengeluaran sijil kesihatan (Health Certificates) for food product to be exported or imported
2. Inspection of restaurant premises

Types of sample:-

1. Physical - labeling, expiry date, identification code
2. Biological - DNA samples
3. Chemical - shops, restaurant, supermarkets, university

Sample collected, sealed and labelled

Procedures of chemical sample collection

• task conducted by minimum 2 officers incharge
• sometime doctors are also involved but only at state level
• for dangerous/high risk operations, a police officer will follow the team
• person incharge will be given a power card ('kad kuasa')
• preparation will be done according to check list in their office
• discussion of type of sample to be collected will be held
• the 2 officers will then depart to sample collection's site
• once there, the officers will introduce theirselves to the owner (must show the 'kad kuasa')
• explains to the owner of the shop regarding type of sample to be collected
• at least 1 member of the shop or restaurant has to follow the person incharge all the time as a witness, preferably the owner himself
• collected samples are divided into 3 portions, kept in 3 separate sample collection bags and labelled appropriately
• collected samples will be sealed
• 1 bag is sent to the lab for chemical analyzation, 1 bag is given to the owner and another is kept at the department for reference
• results take about 2-3 months, once results are out the findings are discussed
• if found guilty action will be taken against the owner
• if not, case is closed.

All penalties are based on the following acts:-

1. Akta makanan
2. Peraturan-peraturan makanan
3. Peraturan-peraturan pengurusan premises

In addition to that, all penalties also depends on the level of fault as well. Maximum penalty can reach up to RM100000 fine.

Location of food lab:-

1. Pulau Pinang (chemical samples)
2. Butterworth (microsamples)
3. Bukit Kayu Hitam

According to En. Zainal, Food Quality and Safety Unit officers are trying their level best to respond to all the complaints they receive (at least within 3 days). However, they give main priority to food poisoning whereby the officers will immediately respond (within 24 hours) and reach the location of complaint once they received such complaint.

Similarly, during sample collections, samples are collected in 3 different sample collection begs where each beg will be sealed and labelled. It is important to seal sample begs to prevent any unwanted fraud to occur. Unsealed sample begs will not be stored or analysed. Having said that, one of the beg will be sent to the lab for analyzing propose, another will be given to the owner whereas 3rd sample will be stored for future references.

All collected sample will be stored in their very own store room. Foods that can last in room temperature are stored in store racks while the others in refrigerator. Each sample can be stored up to 180 days beyond which it will be discarded.

Sampel collection beg

Food store in refrigerator

Some of the challenges sample collection officers usually face during their duty includes poor cooperation from owner, when owner is not around and threat from workers.

Thank you.

-Ravikhumar-