Health Ministry promotes food safety 2023

The Ministry of Health educates and supervises food management centers, hawker centers, and mobile vendors.

On Friday, World Food Safety Day 2023, Maxi Rein Rondonuwu, the ministry’s Director General of Disease Prevention and Control, said this.

“Our focus is educational and supervisory efforts through collaborative guidance and monitoring in the food sector,” he stated.

He said food safety includes nutritious content that meets human demands throughout life.

The director general also stressed sanitary sanitation to maintain food safety.

Rondonuwu noted that 200 foodborne infections might produce mild to severe symptoms.

“Diseases that often occur, especially in children, include typhoid, cholera, dysentery, and hepatitis, and these often occur in school and college students,” he said.

Hygiene can prevent these infections

Rondonuwu believes food should be devoid of toxic substances that might cause cancer and other ailments.

The Ministry of Health also monitors processed food’s high sugar, salt, and fat (GGL) content, which can cause hypertension, heart disease, stroke, and other illnesses.

“This excessive GGL content in food has caused deaths worldwide, including in Indonesia,” he said.

He said that insufficient human resources make monitoring GGL danger labeling on processed goods in marketplaces difficult.

“I urge health offices and local health centers, as well as the directorate’s technical implementation unit, to improve guidance and supervision of food management sites,” he said.

Rondonuwu asked relevant parties to give food safety certificates and oversee food management sites.

His department also wants the Finance Ministry to levy sugary drinks.

World Food Safety Day is June 7, and this year’s theme is “Food Standards Save Lives.”