CHO: Street vendors warned from selling unpacked food

Thursday, January 26, 2012

THE City Health Office (CHO) admitted Thursday many street vendors in Davao City sell unpacked food, but maintained it cannot prevent them from doing business because of humanitarian considerations.

Curtis Lazarraga, City Environmental Sanitation Division Inspector 2 of the CHO, said the city considers the economic side and allows street vendors to go on with their business as this is their only means of income.

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Lazarraga, however, said they have been telling street vendors not to sell unpacked food since this will expose their product to contamination.

"We have been telling them to put measures to safeguard the food," Lazarraga said.

The CHO official was reacting to a recent study conducted by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) – the street foods in Davao City are contaminated with pathogens like salmonella and e-coli and are therefore unsafe for human consumption.

But Lazarraga said they only recommended the selling of foods that are packed and canned, adding that food that are exposed to elements must not be sold anymore.

He also said their office cannot cover all the vendors during inspection as the number of sidewalk vendors is far greater than the number of inspectors they have.

The Environmental Sanitation Office has issued guidelines on food safety, and vendors were already told that cooking should be well done. Foods must also be placed in a clean container to avoid contamination.

"But the continuity of the vendors is something that the City Government has to look into. Because allowing vendors to sell in those areas is partly beyond our scope," Lazarraga said, adding that they are only a regulatory office, having no police power to expel vendors from the streets.

Lazarraga said they are amenable to the plans of DOST to let street vendors sell food using a uniformed food carts and to regularly collect food samples from them for laboratory test.

"That would be a good idea. The city does not have the laboratory capacity to do it. However, if DOST will come into play that would be best," Larrazaga said. (Antonio I. Colina IV)