IPOH, Oct 14 — Four school hostel kitchens have been ordered shut by the Perak Health Department after they were found to be in filthy.
Three of the kitchens were found to have traces of rat and cockroach inhabitation, while the fourth failed to reach the required 70 per cent cleanliness standards.
They were shut down for two weeks and will need to pass a follow-up inspection before being allowed to reopen.
Department director Datuk Dr Juita Ghazalie said two of the schools were in Manjung, while the other two were in Hulu Kinta and Kerian.
“The kitchen in Hulu Kinta had experienced a food poisoning episode in 2014 and was closed for two weeks. It was run by a different operator then,” she said in a statement yesterday.
“The other three schools do not have records of compounds or food poisoning episodes.”
The kitchens were closed during an enforcement operation focusing on school canteens and hostel kitchens in the state from Monday until Wednesday. A total of 195 premises — including 89 hostel kitchens and 106 canteens — were inspected.
Besides the closures, 34 Section 32B notices were issued to operators who flouted the Food Hygiene Regulations 2009.
Dr Juita said 14 notices were issued because the operators failed to maintain hygienic conditions or ensure their workers were vaccinated for typhoid.
“Eleven notices were issued because the workers did not receive food handler training. A further nine notices were issued to handlers who were wearing unhygienic clothes while handling food,” she said.
Dr Juita said the operation was initiated following the increase in food poisoning incidents in the past year.
Since the beginning of the year, 51 food poisoning incidents have been recorded, involving 1,411 victims. Thirty-nine incidents involved schools, accounting for 1,015 victims.
Dr Juita said her department would be conducting surprise inspections on a monthly basis. Previously, checks were only carried out after getting the respective school’s consent.
“We don’t want these premises to be the source of more food poisoning. We want to protect the health and safety of the students,” she said.
On a separate matter, Dr Juita said the Health Department would be conducting a follow-up test in the pools of the Bukit Merah Laketown Resort before allowing it to reopen.
She said the management was replacing the filtration systems, valves and pumps for its five pools.
“When this is done, they can pump in the water provided by the Perak Water Board, Only then will we carry out the tests,” she said.
“We expect it to open its doors to the public by October 26 if they passed the tests.”
