Ministers, Economic Committees Launch Food Safety Training Center
Several Ministers and the Economic Committees launched on Wednesday a training center to train workers on food safety measures during a conference at the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture in Beirut's Hamra area.
Industry Minister Hussein Hajj Hassan stressed during the conference that his ministry will oblige all factories to register their workers in free obligatory courses related to the food safety process.
He stressed that the conference and training center comes in light of the food safety campaign.
Head of Economic Committees Adnan Qassar called on the parliament to swiftly endorse the food safety draft-law.
In November, the joint parliamentary committees formed a 15-member subcommittee to tackle the contaminated food scandal, granting it a 15-day ultimatum to draft a food safety law.
The subcommittee that is headed by Mustaqbal MP Atef Majdalani will work on merging two proposals and form a final food safety law.
The first proposal is suggested by Majdalani, while the second by Tripoli MP and former Prime Minister Najib Miqati.
For his part, Health Minister Wael Abou Faour, who was the first to kick off the food safety campaign in November, stressed that he intentionally named the violating institutions.
“The health of citizens cannot be based on good intentions,” Abou Faour said.
He vowed to continue the food safety campaign, pointing out that “supervision will go on to protect the health of the citizens.”
Violations, announced by Abou Faour, included the presence of flies on the refrigerators of dairy products, the presence of open garbage bins in kitchens, workers not wearing gloves, and frying oil that was not changed for months.
Economy Minister Alain Hakim followed his footsteps by recently announcing the closure labneh factories for violating food safety regulations.
Environment Minister Mohammed al-Mashnouq told gatherers on Wednesday that he is closely following the case of illegal disposal of medical waste products in the sea, considering the case as “sensitive.”
Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5) later reported that the Environment and Health Ministers issued warnings to 19 private hospitals and nine other public hospitals to abide by the health regulations regarding the disposal of its medical waste products.
H.K.
M.T.
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