Hotel operators schooled on food safety

Compiled by Richard Kofi Attenkah
The Ghana Progressive Hotels Association (GHAPROHA), in collaboration with the Council for Technical and Vocational Education Training (COTVET), has organised a 10-day training programme for hotel operators working in Tema.
Under the theme; “Enhancing Food Safety in the Hospitality Industry”, the programme, which is the third batch of training programmes for hoteliers, brought together 60 persons from hotels within the Tema.
The first and second batches, which took place in November last year and January this year, have so far trained 308 persons in the Greater Accra Region alone, 172 closer to its target of 480 by the end of this year.
The operators were taken through topics such as Identification of physical, chemical, micro-biological contaminants and prevention methods; Effective hygiene practices, cleaning, sanitisation, detergents and disinfectant application and procurement.
Others are; Transportation, packaging, storage of raw materials i.e. ingredients, storage and temperature controls, Use of thermometers, management of refrigerator, thawing etc., as well as Cooking temperatures and reheating process.
The rest are Food poisoning, food borne diseases; Study types of microbes – virus, bacteria, pathogens etc., and their prevention, Pest control and management, Hazard analysis, critical control points (HACCP), and Management plan for establishments among others.
Speaking at the closing ceremony of the training programme, Pastor Emmanuel Geadda Asando, said the programme was to enhance the safety of food in the various hotels in Tema.
According to Pastor Asando, at the end of the training, it is their expectation that all the trainees would be able to provide safe food for their clients.
Mr. Edward Shadey, Tema Metropolitan Environmental Health Officer, who was one of the resource persons, advised the operators to endeavour to acquire vans to transport their food and meat products to their hotels.