Food Contamination And Hygiene Practices In Supply Chain Industry

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates 600 million (almost 1 in 10 people) in the world fall ill after eating contaminated food and 420,000 die every year. In April 2018, Ministry of Health (MOH) Malaysia recalled two brands of canned sardine from China due to contaminated with dead worms. Just one month later, Malaysians were shocked with a viral video on the poor food handling and unhygienic restaurant in Kuala Lumpur. The MOH and local authorities had conducted 289,919 checks on food premises nationwide as of May 2018 and found that 5,587 (2%) of the premises, which include restaurants and food outlets, were unclean and shut down under Section 11 of the Food Act 1983. These reflect on the poor hygiene practices and lack of management in providing proper hygiene facilities for both the employees and customers at food establishments.

As food contamination issues increase alarmingly in Malaysia, it is crucial to advocate on raising the bar for food safety and hygiene standards from farm to fork. Rentokil Initial, a global leader in pest control and hygiene solutions is committed to be advocator for this cause and recently invited customers from various sectors to attend the Pest and Total Hygiene (PATH) workshop in Penang, Johor Bahru and Kuala Lumpur, with the themes “Achieving Sustainable Supply Chain Risk Management” and “Raising Hygiene Standards”.

In the supply chain system, everyone plays significant role in ensuring food safety standards. Contamination can happen at any point along the supply chain from raw material, production, distribution and right up through it reaches customer’s plate. The causes of food contamination can be hard to trace, and varies from pest infestation, unhygienic food handling practices and also storage issue.

Carol Lam, the Managing Director of RI Malaysia said “The world population is going to reach 8.6 billion by year 2030 and due to globalised supply chain, the supply chain risk management has become more challenging than ever. This is why Big Data and science-based Integrated Pest Management (IPM) together with good hygiene practices can come together to help you in achieving sustainable supply chain risk.”
As new technology continues to innovate the food processes, transparency and tractability of data are becoming more important to ensure food safety standards are complied. In the recent PATH Workshop, Rentokil Initial has also collaborated with Ministry of Health (MOH) and global food safety audit body, AIB International to share on food safety legislation as well as pre-requisite requirements.

Having identified the issue of food contaminations MoH continues to emphasise on the importance of adhering to food safety legislations. Partnership between government and key players of various industries in the supply chain will ultimately help to have better proactive approach in managing food safety risks in Malaysia.

“In achieving food safety standards, all industries in the supply chain are required to fulfil the Pre-Requisite Programme (PRP) through implementation of pre-requisite food safety programmes such as sanitation, good manufacturing practice (GMP), allergen control, Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and others. IPM is one of the most crucial components and Rentokil Initial addresses the needs of pest control through the execution of ERDM- Execution, Restriction, Destruction and Monitoring process.” said Anthony Raschke, the QA Director of AIB International

If you want to minimise risk of food contamination in your business, it is important to engage the right partner for your pest control management and hygiene solutions. Rentokil Initial, a trusted pest control and hygiene solutions partner, believes in protecting people and enhancing lives always.